lawyer-turned-administrator Shashank Manohar is all set to be elected unopposed as BCCI president on Sunday, bringing in a new era in the cricket body that was not long ago hit hard by the IPl scandal which saw the end of strongman N Srinivasan’s clout.
Manohar will take over the post at the Board’s Special General meeeting here on Sunday as he was the only candidate left in the fray for the election whose deadline for nomination ended on Saturday.
The election was necessitated by the sudden demise of Jagmohan Dalmiya who had a short term of seven months after his election in March this year. Earlier he was made the interim president when Srinivasan “stepped aside” in the wake of revelations that his son-in-law was involved in betting during the 2013 IPl season.
All the six units of East Zone unanimously proposed Manohar’s candidature for the president’s post, reflecting former chief N Srinivasan’s diminishing hold in Board’s power politics.
With BCCI’s Special General Meeting scheduled on Sunday, Manohar’s annointment to the hot seat is just a mere formality after the scrutiny of the nomination forms showed that all the six East Zone units have separately signed as proposers.
A BCCI by-election needs only one proposer from the zone which is electing the president and Manohar got the nod from all the six associations. Manohar’s was the lone nomination at the end of the 7 pm deadline.
Interestingly, one of the proposers for Manohar was late Jagmohan Dalmiya’s son Avishek, who is representing his family club National Cricket Club (NCC) in the upcoming SGM. Srinivasan will not be attending the meeting with Tamil Nadu Cricket Association being represented by P S Raman.
The others who also proposed Manohar’s name are Sourav Ganguly from Bengal, Sourav Dasgupta from Tripura, Gautam Roy from Assam, Ashirbad Behera of Odisha and Sanjay Singh of Jharkhand State Cricket Association (JSCA).
“All the six units of East Zone separately proposed Manohar’s name to show that they are firmly backing his candidature,” a representative from East said.
Manohar’s earlier stint was three years between 2008-09 and 2010-11.
His annointment also means that N Srinivasan now has little chance of coming back into the BCCI fold till 2017 when the Vidarbha man’s tenure ends.
Manohar has the responsibility to guide the BCCI to its stable self after a troubled era under Tamil Nadu strongman Srinivasan whose tenure was marked by acrimony within and outside the Board’s portals.
The 2013 IPl spot fixing scandal that singed Srinivasan, following his son-in-law and IPl team Chennai Super Kings’s former principal Gurunath Meiyappan being found guilty of betting on the T20 league games, led to the Supreme Court sidelining him from holding the reins of the BCCI.
Srinivasan had tried his best to muster enough support for his nominee to take control of the BCCI, including having a surprise meeting with another interested person, Sharad Pawar, at Nagpur recently.
But Pawar’s group members were not keen to have any truck with the TN strongman - who has decided to keep away from the whole rigmarole.
And with another group led by Anurag Thakur also backing Manohar’s candidature after his meeting Union Finance minister Arun Jaitley in Delhi last week, the road was clear for Manohar.
Manohar, thus, is the biggest beneficiary of the change made in the BCCI’s statutes a few years ago permitting former office bearers to return to power after finishing their terms.
Sunday’s SGM is expected to be brief and would be chaired by one of the five Vice Presidents of the BCCI.
Soon to be Cricket Association of Bengal president Sourav Ganguly and Maharashtra CA supremo Ajay Shirke spoke in unison about Manohar being the suitable candidate for the post.
“Shashank Manohar has led BCCI in the past and is a capable person. I am sure he will do a good job,” said Ganguly.
Shirke on his part said: “He is the right candidate. All six East Zone units have proposed his name. He comes with lot of experience and integrity. He has a legal background and we would not have got a better candidate at this point of time.”
Out of the 31 units, 29 units will be attending the SGM as Rajasthan Cricket Association and Jammu & Kashmir Cricket Association (JKCA).
“On the basis of the legal opinion received to the extent that “In view of conflicting orders from different learned Courts of law in having assumed jurisdictions in the self same subject issue of internal dispute claim of JKCA, representations submitted by two factions of JKCA are not allowed,” the BCCI’s scrutiny officer declared.
Two associate members Chattisgarh State Cricket Association and Manipur Cricket Association will also be attending the meeting on Sunday.
‘will carry reforms under Manohar’s leadership’
The BCCI secretary Anurag Thakur on Saturday said that BCCI will continue the reforms under leadership of new president Shashank Manohar, which the board had started in the last six months.
“After the sad demise of Mr Dalmiya. It was important to continue the reforms taken place in last six months. We have seen the previous tenure of Manohar, where his work has been appreciated by everyone and we believe under his leadership BCCI will continue with the reforms which has taken place under Dalmiya’s leadership,” Thakur told mediapersons at the BCCI headquarters.
“I personally believe that with his experience, it was going to benefit of BCCI on day to day basis,” he added.
The secretary also said that there was only one nomination from East Zone which made it clear.
“All the 6 associations from East Zone nominated Shashank manohar’s name for post of president. No other nominations was received. Since there is no other nomination was received, all associations of East Zone nominated Shashank Manohar and was seconded by many other units. So I congratulate Manohar and will wait for formal meeting,” Thakur said.