Haroon Lorgat, the former convenor of South Africa's selectors and a highly regarded chartered accountant, is the man likely to succeed Malcolm Speed as the ICC's chief executive after the embarrassing withdrawal yesterday of Imtiaz Patel, the television executive. The appointment of Patel, who is also a South African, was announced two weeks ago, subject to his agreeing final details of his employment.

His decision means the hasty reconvening of the ICC's appointments committee of David Morgan, the president-elect, Ray Mali, of South Africa, the present ICC president, Creagh O'Connor, of Australia, and Sharad Pawar, of India, who will succeed Morgan as president in 2010. After the meeting of the executive board in Dubai on March 18, it announced that Patel was its unanimous choice. In fact, he had become so as a compromise candidate after it had been unable to decide between Lorgat and I.S. Bindra, the former chairman of the Board of Control for Cricket in India.

Bindra, a member of the governing body of the Indian Premier League (IPL), has since been diplomatic about the effect that the new league, which starts on April 18, would have on international cricket and has promised that no offers would be made to centrally contracted England players without the ECB's blessing. Like Lalit Modi, the IPL's chief organiser, however, he has emphasised the agreement of all the national governing bodies that unofficial leagues, such as the Indian Cricket League (ICL) must be outlawed. The ECB board has complied, believing otherwise that it will have less defence against attempts to set up “unofficial” franchise teams in Britain.

Lorgat, 47, a former partner of Ernst & Young, the accountancy firm, who now runs an investment company, is no stranger to cricket politics, having presided over national selections in South Africa for three years, during which time there were disagreements over the choice of coloured players before they were deemed ready. The new chief executive will take over from Speed, who took the job in 2001 and retires after this year's ICC annual conference in London, which runs from June 29 to July 4.

The potential turmoil in world cricket caused by the huge sums involved in the IPL and the rival ICL can hardly have encouraged Patel to sign on the dotted line, despite his enthusiasm when interviewed and a salary package of about £250,000. As The Times reported after the announcement, it was always questionable whether he would do so, especially because his present employer, SuperSport, had hinted strongly that it would increase his pay to keep him. On Sunday, he phoned Morgan to say that he had decided to stay in his present job as chief executive of SuperSport.

“I'm very hopeful that Imtiaz Patel will take the job and there is no fallback position,” Morgan said at the time, adding that the new chief executive would not be “in any way compromised” by the simultaneous decision to appoint Bindra, who has served on the IPL's governing body, as “principal adviser” to the ICC on a consultancy basis.

Morgan said yesterday: “We are obviously disappointed that Imtiaz has chosen to withdraw his interest, having regarded him highly. It does not mean that we will be left with a candidate who is in any way inferior to him. We have been fortunate to have several high-calibre candidates on the shortlist, all of whom bring something slightly different to the table.

“The role of ICC chief executive officer, while challenging, represents a huge opportunity to help forge the future of our great game at a time of huge innovation and excitement.”

Yet another South African, Dave Richardson, the former Test wicketkeeper, the ICC's manager of cricket, was also on a shortlist as Speed's successor and may be considered afresh.

MCC XII (to play Sussex at Lord’s, April 10-13): E C Joyce (Middlesex, capt), R S Bopara (Essex), M A Carberry (Hampshire), J S Foster (Essex), S T Finn (Middlesex), A Harinath (Loughborough UCCE), S P Kirby (Gloucestershire), G Onions (Durham), A U Rashid (Yorkshire), A Richardson (Middlesex), O A Shah (Middlesex), J C Tredwell (Kent).

— Ed Joyce will captain MCC against Sussex, the county champions, at Lord’s next week in the traditional opening fixture of the season, but there was no place in the squad for Andrew Flintoff. The Lancashire all-rounder will make his first-class return from the latest surgery on his left ankle for his county against Surrey at the Brit Oval on April 16. There was speculation last week that Flintoff might play for MCC, but instead he will be available for Lancashire in friendly matches at home against Yorkshire next week - one of 50 overs and one a two-day match.

Joyce is one of four in the MCC XII with international experience. Owais Shah and Ravi Bopara have points to prove to the selectors.

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