'He could do the job and eat it up for breakfast'

"We were single-heartedly behind John Howard. NZC is held up as a model of good governance in terms of having independent directors who do what is best for cricket... but that obviously doesn't apply to the ICC and that is a shame."
Justin Vaughan, the New Zealand Cricket chief executive, is unimpressed by the world body

"I saw John on TV saying he's going to hold his ground, and I think he should. He really could do the job and he could eat it up for breakfast."
New Zealand prime minister John Key backs the former Australian PM...

"John Howard - passionate, passionate cricket fan. I share some of the concerns he's voiced publicly about the kind of factors that are influencing this decision."
...As does Julia Gillard, the new Australian prime minister

"In any business model where a company has 75% of the income, it's not an ideal model. But that is not India's fault they do that... it's a powerful bloc but it's a reality of life."
Cricket Australia's chairman Jack Clarke on the power wielded by India

"By voting with an anti-colonial bloc instead of upholding the process it helped put in place, India has, once again, abused its power, just as it has by demanding the sacking of umpires and threatening to abandon tours if things did not go its way. In the end, cricket will suffer."
Australian journalist Malcolm Conn blames the BCCI

"The fact is, Sri Lanka oppose Howard because they've had a belly-full of their own politicians, Pakistan because they feel strongly that a man with no history of cricket administration has no place in the top job in the game, South Africa because they believe it is hypocritical of an organisation which proclaims to be 'apolitical' to have an inherently political animal at its head and Zimbabwe because Howard advocated years ago that Zimbabwe Cricket be thrown onto the scrap heap of boycott and sanction because of the abhorrent behavior of the ruling regime."
South African journalist Neil Manthorp gives reasons for Howard's rejection

"Howard has been rejected because his strong leadership would have thwarted the ambitions of several administrators to downgrade and devalue the ICC's role. The ICC board is as political as any political party. The countries that voted him down want a compliant figurehead."
The former ICC chief executive Malcolm Speed blames the back-room politics for Howard's rejection

"A group of 10 cannot afford to be at war with each other, cannot take up strident positions. There must be other ways. Acceptance and cooperation can open the doors to those."
Harsha Bhogle calls for a resolution

"The mess is not about politics, or principle, or anything but power. The worst elements at the ICC were scared of Howard and found a reason to stop him before he became strong."
Peter Roebuck finds nothing redeeming about the whole affair

"If CA and NZC didn't see this embarrassment coming, they were seriously caught with their pants down."
New Zealand Herald's David Leggat is not surprised by the rejection

"Ultimately in any democratic organisation, there has to be support from the majority but that was not there in his case."
Sharad Pawar, the new ICC president, defends the decision