Speed reveals departure plans

Malcolm Speed

Malcolm Speed is to step down from his position as chief executive of the International Cricket Council next June.

Cricket’s world governing body have confirmed Australian Speed will not seek an extension of his contract when it expires in 2008, when he will have served seven years in the post.

“He made a decision quite a long time ago that he was not going to seek renewal of his contract,” confirmed an ICC spokesman.

“It has long been his intention to retire at 60 and his current contract takes him a couple of months short of his 60th birthday.”

Speed, 58, headed the Australian cricket board prior to succeeding Dave Richards as the figurehead of the ICC.

During Speed’s reign the ICC departed Lord’s, the body’s home for almost a century, to move lock, stock and barrel to Dubai.

Recently he came under fire for the seemingly never-ending World Cup and was at the centre of the Darrell Hair affair last summer following the forfeited Test between England and Pakistan at the Brit Oval.