The reelection of Giles Clarke as the Chairman of the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) on Monday, despite criticism of his role in getting the England team embroiled with Allen Stanford, the Texas businessman accused of a nine-billion-dollar fraud. It is a clear pointer to the fact that when the authorities or personas continue to hold the positions of vantage for a long time, the controversies or scandals do not serve as a stumbling block in seeking reelections to these posts once again.

There was only one opponent against Clarke as his only challenger, Jonathan Marland, withdrew from the race earlier this month after managing to secure the backing of only two of the 18 first-class counties.

Controversies tend to have effect, more so in the case of public offices, and in relation to immediate elections being called. But if the issue is allowed to die its natural death, then it becomes a dead issue. After all, public memory is short, and as Marshall Mclluhan has said everyone has his moment of glory and to further add in that 'infamy' of few moments and then the world carries on. It seems to happen in this case as well.

Marland, who had been critical of the ECB's links to Stanford, may have fared better had the initial vote taken place after the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) charged the Texan with fraud. A quick rear guard action was taken by ECB, and it may have been the factor, which would have prevailed on the counties to go along with Clarke instead of voting for a new candidate. After a decision was taken by ECB to terminate all its contracts with Stanford, ending plans for further Stanford Twenty20 matches in Antigua and regular international quadrangular Twenty20 events in England, the first of which was due to be played at Lord's in May, a view must have changed about Clarke.

It was revealed by the ECB Chief Executive David Collier that he and Clarke had discussed their positions in the wake of the Stanford revelations but clarified that resignation was never an option to contain or tide over the controversy.

Comments

Add New RSS

3.25 Copyright (C) 2007 Alain Georgette / Copyright (C) 2006 Frantisek Hliva. All rights reserved."

Newer news items:

Older news items: