Cricket Australia's decision to nominate John Howard as its candidate for the top job at the International Cricket Council is as pitiful as it is disrespectful. Howard's knowledge of cricket is more characterised by enthusiasm than depth or imagination. Plain and simple, he is not qualified for the job. Moreover, the way in which he has been plucked from the sidelines shows CA in the worst possible light.

Rather than recommending a retired politician, no matter how eminent, CA ought to be getting behind the splendid candidate suggested by its counterpart across the Tasman. Instead it stands accused on intransigence.

For several months Australia and New Zealand have been at loggerheads over the appointment of the next deputy chairman of the ICC. Under the protocol adopted by all nations a few years ago, it is this region's turn to choose the next senior man and the two nations were expected to produce a single candidate by the end of last year. Instead they kept arguing and were obliged to ask the ICC to extend the deadline by two months.

Inevitably the other nations chuckled. Administrative bickering was supposed to be a subcontinental custom.

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