At today’s meeting in Dubai, the Board approved the recommendation of the four-person sub-committee tasked with finding a replacement for Malcolm Speed, who has been ICC Chief Executive since 2001.

Mr Speed will step down at the ICC’s annual conference at the end of June and, subject to details being worked out, Mr Patel will be invited to take over at the same meeting for an initial period of three years.

Speaking after the conclusion of day one of the two-day meeting, ICC President Ray Mali said: “We are delighted that Imtiaz is the Board’s choice for the post of next ICC Chief Executive. I have no doubt that if he accepts the position he will do a great job.”

Mr Patel (43) is currently chief executive of SuperSport International in his native South Africa and has previously held directorships of the United Cricket Board of South Africa as well as other sports organisations including SuperSport United soccer club in Pretoria and Sharks Rugby in Kwazulu Natal.

Mr Patel is originally from the town of Schweizer Reneke in the North-West Province of South Africa. He studied education and was a teacher for four years in Soweto where he was also involved in developing cricket. He is married with two sons aged 12 and 14.

ICC President-Elect David Morgan, who will take over from Mr Mali at the annual conference, said: “I am pleased that the ICC Board has approved this appointment. We are now negotiating the details of Mr Patel’s engagement as our Chief Executive. In anticipation of an early completion to that negotiation, I do look forward to working closely with him during my presidency.

“These are exciting and busy times for world cricket and I know that Mr Patel will bring his wide range of skills and broad knowledge of the game to the table in a way that will benefit cricket as a whole.

“It was encouraging to see that the Board endorsed the sub-committee’s recommendation. Mr Patel is an outstanding candidate. Through his work at SuperSport he has been leading a television channel that has been at the forefront of cricket broadcasting for some considerable time,” said Mr Morgan.

“This has been a rigorous selection process and I am satisfied that we have exhausted every avenue to find the best person for the job. We are now in the process of negotiating the details with Mr Patel before he can be officially appointed.”

The ICC has been engaged in an extensive selection process to find the next Chief Executive. Global recruitment firm Egon Zehnder International was appointed to conduct the initial stages of the process and then it presented a short-list of candidates to the sub-committee.

The sub-committee, which consisted of Mr Mali, Mr Morgan, Sharad Pawar and Creagh O’Connor, with Dr Nasim Ashraf present as a non-voting observer, heard a presentation from Egon Zehnder International and then met to decide upon its favoured candidate. The sub-committee made its recommendation to the Board today and the candidature of Mr Patel was approved.

The ICC Board, which meets three times a year, is made up of the following Directors:

Ray Mali (Chairman) – ICC President

Malcolm Speed – ICC Chief Executive Officer

David Morgan – ICC President-Elect

Full Members

Creagh O’Connor – Australia

Major General Sina Ibn Jamali – Bangladesh

Giles Clarke – England

Sharad Pawar – India

Sir John Anderson KBE – New Zealand

Dr Nasim Ashraf – Pakistan

Arjuna Ranatunga – Sri Lanka

Norman Arendse – South Africa

Dr Julian Hunte OBE – West Indies

Peter Chingoka – Zimbabwe

Associate Members

Samir Inamdar – Kenya

Stanley Perlman – Israel

HRH Tunku Imran – Malaysia