Sunil Gavaskar - AP

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP)

Sunil Gavaskar will have to explain how he can combine his roles as an International Cricket Council (ICC) official and a media analyst at an upcoming meeting.

Gavaskar, who is chairman of the ICC's cricket committee, met with ICC chief executive Malcolm Speed yesterday.

"The meeting followed discussions by the ICC board last week concerning the potential for a conflict of interest for a person chairing the cricket committee while, at the same time, working for a media outlet," the ICC said in a statement.

Gavaskar will chair the upcoming meeting of the cricket committee on May 5-6, and the ICC board will also review the matter at its next meeting, from June 29-July 4.

Gavaskar writes syndicated columns for Indian newspaper Hindustan Times. His dual role has been questioned since he commented on the decision by match referee Mike Procter to ban Indian spinner Harbhajan Singh for three Test matches for racial abuse toward Australia's Andrew Symonds in January. The decision was overturned on appeal.

"By accepting the word of the Australian players and not the Indian players, the match referee has exposed himself to the charge of taking a decision based not on facts, but on emotion," Gavaskar wrote in his column.

"Millions of Indians want to know if it was a 'white man' taking the 'white man's' word against that of the 'brown man."'

After the ICC's executive board meeting last week, Gavaskar said India's growing stature in the cricketing world was upsetting countries like England and Australia.

"Once again, it is (a) misplaced belief that they are the only ones with honesty, integrity and have the welfare of the game at heart, while the 'sub-continentals' do not," Gavaskar wrote.