Wellington, March 2 NZPA - New Zealand Cricket (NZC) and Cricket Australia (CA) have jointly nominated former Australian Prime Minister John Howard to serve as International Cricket Council (ICC) president from 2012.

The two organisations announced their decision this afternoon, ending months of protracted discussion after they could not agree on their nominee.

CA pushed hard for Howard while NZC was equally adamant the man for the job was former NZC chairman Sir John Anderson.

Under the ICC rotation, an Australasian candidate fills the role for a two-year term from 2012.

David Morgan, who is currently in the chair, is due to hand over to India's Sharad Pawar for a two-year term to start in mid-2010.

The inability of CA and NZC to make a decision led to both boards forming a joint nominations committee, headed by an independent chairman in respected Australian businessman Sir Rod Eddington.

In a joint statement today, CA chairman Jack Clarke and his NZ counterpart Alan Isaac said

the final decision came down to the input of Eddington.

"We are pleased that an eminent candidate in John Howard has agreed, after an exhaustive process, to take the role of joint Australia-New Zealand nominee for the ICC presidency.

"It was an extremely difficult decision and ultimately relied on the input of Sir Rod Eddington, whom both cricket boards respect enormously," they said.

Howard said that he was honoured and humbled to receive the joint Australia-New Zealand invitation but, noting that the nomination will not be official until June, believed it inappropriate to comment until that time.