Gurumurthy Palani (France), Mubashshir Usmani (UAE) and Rudie van Vuuren (Namibia) have been elected as Associate Members Directors of the ICC Board.

This massive change in the board was made during the ICC Annual Conference held in Edinburgh. However, the long-serving member of the Associate Members’ director and current deputy chair, Imran Khwaja saw a defeat in the elections after finishing fourth in the voting.

Gurumurthy Palani topped the poll with 35 votes, while Mubashshir Usmani and Rudie van Vuuren got 26 votes, and Khwaja finished a close fourth with 23 votes.

While Palani and Rudie van Vuuren are first timers in ICC Board members, Usmani have retained his position. He has served as an Associate Member Director on the ICC Board for the past two years.

It was a biennial election, and the three winners will serve a two-year term on a powerful ICC Board. Usmani, Khwaja and Vallipuram were the incumbent Associate Member Directors.

As per ICC rules, 45 associate members are eligible to participate in the election. Only 43 were eligible to vote this time as USA cricket and Cricket Canada remain under suspension.

With each voting member entitled to cast three votes, a total of 129 votes were available. Usman Khwaja comes as a surprise, considering the stature he has attained in the ICC.

He has briefly served as acting ICC chair in 2020 following the resignation of Shashank Manohar. He has been a long-standing representative of the Associate Members on the ICC Board.

He has also served as deputy Chair under ICC Chairmen N Srinivasan, Manohar, Greg Barclay and current ICC Chairman Jay Shah.

The ICC will have to elect a new deputy chairman, and one of the three elected today will be the likely choice of the ICC members. However, the final matters of cricket will be unveiled by the end of the conference on July 11.