Shashank Manohar to take his place
Former BCCI president N. Srinivasan’s hold on Indian cricket virtually ended Monday when he was removed as chairman of the International Cricket Council at the BCCI’s 86th annual general meeting here. Mr Shashank Manohar, who was recently elected BCCI president in place of the late Jagmohan Dalmiya, will take the place the Chennai strongman now has to vacate in the ICC. The move to oust Mr Srinivasan, who was the virtual dictator of Indian cricket when he was president, received near unanimous approval of all board members at the cricket board’s AGM in Mumbai on Monday.
“The BCCI representative to ICC will be Shahshank Manohar and by virtue of being the board’s representative to the ICC he will take over as ICC chairman,” said BCCI secretary Anurag Thakur.
The two-year ICC tenure of Mr Srinivasan, who was ousted as BCCI chief earlier this year after the Supreme Court intervened and refused to allow him to contest again for the president’s post due to a conflict of interest, would have seen him remain head of world cricket till June 2016. Not only will Mr Manohar replace him at the ICC, but in case he is unavailable for any reason to attend an ICC meeting, it would be former BCCI president and ICC chairman Sharad Pawar who will represent the BCCI in the international cricket body.
Conflict of interest was the key issue on which Mr Srinivasan was found way short of the ideal. As owner of Chennai Super Kings by virtue of being the head of India Cements, the controversial cricket administrator got huge criticism and faced several lawsuits over his continuing to be associated with the BCCI as an administrator, more so after his son-in-law, who was CSK “team principal”, was found betting on IPL matches involving his own team, sometimes even placing bets against the team. Mr Srinivasan, however, remains president of the Tamil Nadu Cricket Association.
To address the conflict of interest issues, the BCCI also decided to drop Team India director Ravi Shastri from the IPL governing council and to axe Roger Binny from the selection panel. CAB president Sourav Ganguly was named chairman of the technical committee, replacing Anil Kumble. Rajeev Shukla remains IPL chairman despite major complaints of corruption during his tenure in 2013.
“All members of the board were unanimous in their approach and were interested in seeing that it functions in a most transparent manner. The conflict of interest rules and amendments proposed to rules and regulations of the BCCI were approved unanimously,” Mr Manohar, who will also be the disciplinary committee chairman, said.
Asked how the same board members had sung a different tune during Mr Srinivasan’s nearly 10-year reign in BCCI, in various positions as treasurer, secretary and president, Mr Manohar said: “Circumstances forced people; better not go into it. Everyone spoke in the meeting with clarity.”
Besides Binny, Rajinder Singh Hans was also dropped as a selector. Former Indian cricketers M.S.K. Prasad and Gagan Khoda replaced them in the five-member panel headed by Sandeep Patil. “We took the decision looking at the performance of selectors,” Mr Manohar said on Hans. “The perception (in the media) has to change. There should be no injustice to Stuart. His career should not be destroyed because of that,” he added about Roger.
Besides heading the technical committee, Ganguly is also an IPL governing council member and cricket commentator, but Mr Manohar didn’t see any problem there. “He can pursue whatever profession he wants. The conflict would arise if he has a commercial interest in the board,” Mr Manohar said.
“I have been in the technical committee before, I will do my job well,” Ganguly said on his additional role.
Mr Manohar revealed that Justice A.P. Shah, as BCCI’s ombudsman, will decide on any matters of conflict of interest. “The ombudsman, who is a former Chief Justice of the Delhi high court, will decide on any claims or complaints about conflict of interest. This is to eliminate bias from the decision-making process. Anyone can make a complaint to the board. and the board will forward it to him,” Mr Manohar added.
