Shashank Manohar quits as BCCI President

Amidst all the speculations, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has confirmed that Shashank Manohar has quit his post as the BCCI President. Manohar took over the post in September 2015 after the sudden demise of the then President of BCCI, Jagmohan Dalmiya.

His tenure as the BCCI president is the second shortest (8 months) in the history of the board functioning after Jagmohan Dalmiya’s stint at the same post last year lasted only 6 months. It was speculated that Shashank Manohar will quit the post in a bid to be a contender for ICC’s president. The International Cricket Council (ICC) announced its agenda of having the secret ballot to elect its first independent chairman.

If Manohar gets elected as the ICC President, he will take over the post immediately and will serve till 2021. The names of potential replacements for the post are Sharad Pawar, Anurag Thakur and Rajeev Shukla. Anurag Thakur is being tipped as the forerunner for the post. He is currently the BCCI secretary. When Jagmohan Dalmiya was in power, it was Thakur who took the important calls. With Manohar’s entry, it had left Thakur playing second fiddle. It would be safe to assume with Manohar’s departure, Thakur would want to wrest back his position of power. Shukla too has been given complete control of the IPL and enjoys a lot confidence among most members,” a BCCI insider revealed to Hindustan Times.

Manohar was keen on quitting his post since the Supreme Court had been intervening in the BCCI decision making and he did not have much say, said his close acquaintances. Also, he wanted to serve a broader audience for the betterment of the game. “In the present scenario, he (Manohar) knows he can’t do much in the BCCI with the way the Supreme Court is viewing things,” his acquaintances said last week.

“The ICC post gives him a stable five-year window and an opportunity to make history as possibly the administrator who brought all countries (member boards of the ICC) together, and struck off the so-called monopoly of the Big Three. Look how the West Indies and Pakistan boards have already started praising him for what he’s done,” they added further.

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