Ian Smith, FICA’s legal advisor said that the ICC had urged member nations not to interfere with the voting process but did precious little. Smith accused Boards of applying “direct pressure on their captains to amend their votes.” He stressed in ESPNCricinfo that there is a “very clear distinction” between routine lobbying before an election and “threatening an employee to change their vote.”

Smith added: “In light of media reports that five ICC full member boards applied direct pressure on their captains to amend their votes in the recent elections, FICA’s official stance is that these allegations must warrant careful and independent scrutiny especially because we understand ICC specifically instructed the Boards not to interfere in the voting process.

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“The actions, allegedly instigated by BCCI, are a timely and stark reminder of the very serious shortcomings in governance at ICC highlighted more than a year ago by the Woolf Report and about which ICC has done nothing in the intervening period.”

May’s credentials are noteworthy and ESPNCricinfo columnist Jarrod Kimber wrote: “May speaks his mind at all times. His job is to call out these boards. His job is to do what is best for the players. He is no board lackey or stooge but his own man who believed so much in players having a unified voice that he created one for them. “What better way to embarrass this man, and FICA itself, than to have him ousted from his ICC role as the player's representative by the same players he works for.”
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