Deputy chairman imran khwaja

Deputy Chairman Imran Khwaja: In a major shake-up, long-serving International Cricket Council (ICC) Deputy Chairman Imran Khwaja suffered a shock defeat in the Associate Member Directors' elections held on the sidelines of the global body's Annual Conference here on Wednesday.

France's Gurumurthy Palani topped the polling charts with 35 votes, while UAE's Mubashir Usmani and Namibia's Rudie van Vuuren secured 26 votes each to claim the three available spots on the all-powerful 17-member ICC Board for a two-year term.

Khwaja, a veteran administrator from Singapore who has been a dominant voice for the associate nations at the ICC, finished a close fourth with 23 votes. The fifth candidate in the fray, Malaysia's Mahinda Vallipuram, managed only 19 votes. While Palani and Van Vuuren enter the apex board for the first time at the expense of Khwaja and Vallipuram, Usmani successfully retained his position.