Speed denies ICC has anti-Asian bias

Malcolm Speed: offended by accusations © Getty Images

Malcolm Speed, the chief executive of the ICC, has strongly dismissed recent complaints that the organisation is biased against Asian countries.

"The ICC is sometimes criticised, and we read this from time to time and we get very offended by it, that we are biased against Asia and somehow we are alleged to be racist," he said in a speech to the Asian Cricket Council. "Our president [Ehsan Mani] is from Pakistan, the chairman of the cricket committee is from India and our chief referee is from Sri Lanka ... think about that for a moment."

He added that the four Asian Test-playing countries were major commercial players, and that was one of the reasons the ICC relocated from Lord's in London to Dubai. At the time of the move it was claimed that the move had been caused by the British government's failure to offer the ICC tax concessions to remain in London.

"Cricket's unique selling point, we hear that term from the marketers, is the Indian subcontinent. In those four countries there is a great passion for cricket. That is 22% of the world's population. They are huge economies that are growing rapidly. That is our unique selling point and too often we shy away from that. Much of our revenue now comes from that region and we should work very hard to make sure that continues to happen," Speed said.

"We moved to Asia. It was a deliberate move and there are good reasons to move to Asia. We are only a few hours from Delhi, Karachi, Colombo or Dhaka. We are not far from here (Kuala Lumpur) or South Africa, England, Australia or New Zealand. We can get where we need to be."