End of N Srinivasan era? Shashank Manohar all set to be elected unopposed as BCCI president
Mumbai: Shashank Manohar is all set to take over as the BCCI president at the Board's Special General (SGM) meeting here on Sunday after emerging as the only candidate, marking an unusually smooth transition of power following the demise of Jagmohan Dalmiya.
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.
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The 58-year-old Vidarbha-based lawyer will take over the reins of BCCI for the second time after Dalmiya's sudden demise in Kolkata last month.
With BCCI's Special General Meeting scheduled tomorrow, Manohar's anointment 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.
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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 (TNCA) being represented by PS 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 anointment also means that 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.
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The 2013 IPL spot-fixing scandal that singed Srinivasan, following his son-in-law and IPL team Chennai Super Kings' 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.
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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 (CAB) 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."
"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.
