Imran Khwaja loses as Palani, Usmani, Rudi elected to the ICC Board

Gurumurthy Palani (France), Mubashir Usmani (UAE) and Rudie van Vuuren (Namibia) have been elected as Associate Member Directors of the International Cricket Council (ICC). The election was held in Edinburgh on Wednesday.

The biggest surprise was the defeat of Imran Khwaja, the long-serving Associate Members' Director and current ICC Deputy Chair. Khwaja finished fourth in the voting. Palani topped with 35 votes, while Usmani and van Vuuren secured 26 votes each. Khwaja finished fourth with 23 votes.

Palani and van Vuuren will be first-time ICC Board members, while Usmani has retained his position, having served as an Associate Member Director for the past two years.

It was a biennial election with five candidates, including Mahinda Vallipuram (Malaysia). The three winners will serve a two-year term. Usmani, Khwaja and Vallipuram were the incumbent directors.

As per ICC rules, 45 Associate Members are eligible, but only 43 could vote as USA Cricket and Cricket Canada remain under suspension. Each member had three votes, totaling 129. Vallipuram polled 19 votes.

Khwaja's defeat is a surprise given his stature. The Singapore administrator rose to become Deputy Chair and briefly served as acting ICC Chair in 2020 following Shashank Manohar's resignation. He served under Chairs N Srinivasan, Manohar, Greg Barclay and Jay Shah.

With Khwaja out, the ICC must elect a new Deputy Chair, likely from one of the three elected members. The outcome is expected by July 11.