Colombo, July 19 (IANS): Imran Khwaja, Mubashshir Usmani and Mahinda Vallipuram have been elected as ICC Associate Member Directors following an election process on day one of the ICC Annual Conference here on Friday.

In line with the Associate Members’ Meeting Terms of Reference, the voting was conducted at the Formal Associate Members meeting by way of a weighted secret ballot in which all voters (each Voting Associate Member and each Regional Representative) have three votes.

While Khwaja was re-elected as Associate Member representative on the Board, Usmani and Vallipuram will now be replacing Pankaj Khimji (Oman) and Neil Speight (Bermuda) in the all-important ICC Board as Associate Member directors.

Khwaja was the long-serving president of the Singapore Cricket Association, while Usmani is the general secretary of the Emirates Cricket Board. Vallipuram, on the other hand, worked as the Malaysian Cricket Association president, but holds a big post in the Asian Cricket Council.

Other candidates in the elections were Sam Arthur (Costa Rica), Dr. Rudie Van Vuuren (Namibia), Sankar Renganathan (Sierra Leone), Gurumurthy Palani (France), Stephen Musaele (Rwanda), and Mahmood Gaznavi (Singapore).

ICC added that Friday’s result will trigger an election in October for Usmani’s position on the Chief Executives’ Committee (CEC) as he is unable to hold both positions. Usmani has been a two-time member of the CEC, where he was representing the Associate Members.

"I would like to welcome the elected Associate Member Directors onto the Board for the next term. I look forward to working with Imran, Mubashshir and Mahinda to continue to push the sport forward by delivering the strategy and growing the game so that more people can enjoy cricket across the world," said ICC Chair Greg Barclay.