Sonn appointed as ICC president

London: President of South Africa Thabo Mbeki led the tributes for Percy Sonn who took over from Ehsan Mani as International Cricket Council president on Friday.

"The ICC was the first international sports body to recognise a democratic South Africa through the membership of the United Cricket Board of South Africa in 1991," said Mbeki.

"Mr Sonn played a major role in the unification of South African cricket that led to this membership and his leadership of the ICC will be another important step in his administrative career," he said in a press statement.

"The President, Government and the people of South Africa congratulate advocate Percy Sonn on his appointment as president of the ICC, the first South African to hold this post," added Mbeki.

Mani, whose three-year reign as president ended on Friday at the ICC's annual conference at Lord's, was equally full of good wishes and praise for his successor.

"Percy has served as ICC vice-president for the past two years and is a former president of the United Cricket Board of South Africa," he said.

"He brings a wealth of experience and a deep understanding of the issues in the game (to the role of ICC president). He will have the support of a well-structured and properly resourced organisation complemented by an excellent management team. I extend my best wishes to Percy during his term as ICC president," added Mani.

Congratulations also came from the Chief Executive of the United Cricket Board of South Africa, Gerald Majola, and South Africa's captain, Graeme Smith.

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"It (Sonn's appointment) says much for the South African and international cricketing fraternity that the young boy who learnt his cricket in dusty townships during the apartheid era has now risen to head the family of world cricket," Mani said.

"He brings to the presidential table the South African experience of the struggle for equal opportunity, unity through reconciliation and the recognition of strength through diversity."

"Advocate Sonn also has a sharp legal mind that is essential in dealing with the sophisticated commercial issues that dominate top international sport today."

"It is a wonderful feather in South African cricket's cap to have advocate Percy Sonn as President of the ICC", Graeme Smith was quoted as saying in the release.

"We in cricket are always striving to get to the top, and it is great to see an able and committed administrator such as Advocate Sonn reaching the highest office."

"We are confident that his leadership will do much towards world cricket meeting the challenges that face all of us because of his in-depth knowledge of the needs of the game at all levels," added Smith.

56-year-old Sonn is the sixth man to fill the senior role at the ICC.

He follows on from Lord Colin Cowdrey (1989-93), Sir Clyde Walcott (1993-97), Jagmohan Dalmiya (1997-2000), Malcolm Gray (2000-2003) and Ehsan Mani (2003-2006).

His appointment as ICC President follows two years as the organisation's vice-president, a post to which he was appointed on July 1, 2004.

He will serve as ICC president for a minimum of two years and a maximum of three years.