Any differences with BCCI did not incur the resignation from the ICC Chairman's duties: Shashank Manohar

On 15th March 2017, a shocking decision came in the cricketing world the president of International Cricket Council (ICC) decided to step down from the job. He cited personal reasons for his actions but there were speculations that his issues with the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) were the major influence.

But he has cleared the air saying that any dispute with BCCI had nothing to do with resignation. He had announced to the Supreme Court-appointed Committee of Administrators (CoA), which is presently running the BCCI that he had made up his mind about the decision, the day before he left the job.

“It has nothing to do with the ICC functioning or these issues which are going to come up. Personal reason means genuinely personal. And I don’t lie”, he told ESPNcricinfo. He also said he is no mood to reconsider his decision.

Following his resignation, BCCI released a statement where they expressed their surprise on the abrupt call from Manohar. “Mr. Manohar’s contribution to Indian cricket is invaluable. He is a man of few words but excellent deeds. The BCCI Committee of Administrators (CoA) was looking forward to a long-term cooperation between the ICC and BCCI with Mr. Manohar at the helm of affairs.”

Manohar said he was happy with his 8-months tenure as the president of ICC and satisfied with the work done by him. But he told he couldn’t have revealed his decision to leave earlier to ICC. “Most of the directors would not have allowed me not to resign”, he said.

When he became the BCCI president in November 2015, he started having disputes with the Big Three when he went against the finance and governance model that gave solid power in the hands of BCCI, CA and ECB. After becoming the ICC chairman in 2016, he took it upon himself to remove the Big Three model.

He wanted to cut down the share of BCCI in ICC’s revenue from 20.60% to about 16%. It came down eventually to 10-10.2%, a cut of $180-190 million in the revised revenue distribution model by implemented by ICC.

BCCI certainly did not like Manohar’s move to go against his own previous board they felt that he was going against the body that put him at the peak of ICC’s governing body. His decision to leave ICC was being seen as a result of such disputes but he did not reveal the actual reason and termed it as a personal one.