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Malcolm Speed, the former International Cricket Council (ICC) chief executive, has hit out at the boards that have blocked John Howard's nomination as the next ICC vice-president.

Australia and New Zealand have been asked to nominate another candidate after it emerged that former Australian Prime Minster Howard did not have enough support.

Speed, who was the ICC’s chief executive from 2001 until 2008, believes those who did not want Howard in the role are politically motivated.

"Howard has been rejected because his appointment would provide the ICC with strong leadership that would thwart the ambitions of several current administrators to downgrade and devalue the role of the ICC," Speed wrote in the Sydney Morning Herald.

"Howard would have stood in their path. The role requires strength of character – a leader, diplomat, statesman and politician. The ICC board is as political as any political party. The countries that voted him down want a compliant figurehead who will do their bidding."

Speed said that Australia and New Zealand had previously accepted nominations despite reservations. He believes that they should decline to make another candidate available and instead pass the role on to Pakistan and Bangladesh, who are next in line on the rotation system, then refuse to vote their candidate in.

"In the meantime, they should be banging the table and making their displeasure widely known," he added.

Speed also questioned whether ICC president-elect Sharad Pawar would have time for cricket in the middle of his political career: "Sharad Pawar is the minister for agriculture in the Indian Government – a serious full-time job, feeding 1.2 billion people. He is a good and fair man but he will be working part-time as ICC president and, take it from me, he knows little about cricket administration.

"I was present at several ICC board meetings he attended. ICC meetings generally last two days. Pawar attended for one hour and was then replaced by one of the Board of Control for Cricket in India apparatchiks. They were concerned that he was too busy and would be too reasonable."

Cricket Australia's chairman Jack Clarke and his New Zealand Cricket counterpart Alan Isaac revealed in a joint statement they were "deeply disappointed" after supplying "the best possible candidate".

"We jointly nominated Mr Howard as he possesses significant leadership and administrative skills," they said. "We believe cricket needs to continue to seek excellence and dispassionate independence in the game's global governance.

"We were delighted that the most senior world figure ever considered for this role agreed to accept the nomination. We remain convinced it is reasonable for his nomination to be supported by the ICC executive board and we are deeply disappointed by the position taken."