Neil Speight, the Bermuda Cricket Board chief executive, has been forced to defend himself against charges that he has been derelict in his duties to “the little man”, as storm clouds gather over the International Cricket Council, the world governing body, in relation to a proposed sea change in how the game is run.

The cricket world has been abuzz with punch and counterpunch in the past 72 hours as details become public of an impromptu draft proposal, or “position paper”, which was presented to Full Member nations at a special ICC meeting in Dubai less than a fortnight ago.

Through the minutiae, the nuts and bolts do not make pleasant reading for the smaller nations, with England, Australia and India allegedly preparing to form an axis of power in which all matters in world cricket will effectively go through them, significantly protecting and/or enhancing their interests — financial or otherwise.

Whether or not that has a direct consequence for Bermuda, whose cricketers are now playing football or doing nothing at all while the likes of Nepal and Papua New Guinea are in New Zealand attempting to qualify for the 2015 World Cup, it is believed that Speight should have known of the draft proposal and looked out for those who stand to lose out, especially in the distribution of surplus revenue.

The “position paper” has, after all, come from the “working party” of the same Finance and Commercial Affairs (F&CA) committee that the BCB chief executive sits on, with Giles Clarke, the chairman of the England and Wales Cricket Board, N. Srinivasan, the president of the Board of Control for Cricket in India, and Wally Edwards, the chairman of Cricket Australia, at the heart of behind-the-scenes movements in the past six months that would change the face of cricket.

But Speight has dissociated himself from the “position paper”, saying that he had no knowledge of it. “I am aware that my name has been included in recent Cricinfo articles that make comment on upcoming ICC matters,” he said in a public statement.

“I am an ICC director and a member of the F&CA committee, but I have no knowledge of the reported proposals.”

The most contentious proposal was that, in lieu of the World Test Championship being cancelled before it has even got off the ground, the so-called “Big Three” would be exempt from relegation in a two-divisional format.

South Africa are far and away the No 1 Test team in the world, but languish behind even Pakistan as a financial concern and would receive a smaller share of future revenues under the proposal.

Cricket South Africa subsequently became the first national board yesterday to demand that the “position paper” be withdrawn, calling it unconstitutional. The West Indies Cricket Board discussed the topic among its board of directors by teleconference yesterday and will hold another meeting today.

The draft also calls for a new executive committee to be formed with permanent membership for the Big Three.

The triad would also have unchallenged voting rights when it comes to deciding on the three most influential positions in the world governing body — ICC chairman, chairman of the newly formed executive committee, or ExCo, and chairman of the F&CA committee.

The ICC would also be struck from the equation when it comes to the Future Tours Programme, opening the door for the Big Three to stage Test series among themselves with impunity, while raking in the cash that full houses would command, and allowing England, in particular, to never have to relaunch its lone political protest over playing against Zimbabwe.

Speight’s pleas of ignorance fell on deaf ears in some quarters, with Stanley Perlman, a South African who sat on the ICC executive board from 1999 to 2008 as an Associate representative, the most damning of his critics.

“As a member of the board, you and your fellow directors from Scotland and Singapore should have known what was about to happen,” Perlman said in a message that was copied to The Royal Gazette. “If you didn’t know, then you haven’t done your job properly guarding Associate and Affiliate interests.

“Your job as directors on the board is to look after Associate and Affiliate. Obviously, all three of you missed the boat. Time for a change.”

The “position paper” will be put to the ICC at its quarterly meeting in Dubai next Tuesday and Wednesday, at which Speight will be in attendance.