Manohar all set to be elected unopposed as BCCI president

Mumbai, October 3

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Lawyer-turned-administrator Shashank Manohar is all set to be elected unopposed as BCCI president tomorrow, 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 meeting here tomorrow as he was the only candidate left in the fray for the election whose deadline for nomination ended today.

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 tomorrow, 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 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 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.

Tomorrow'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 Chhattisgarh State Cricket Association and Manipur Cricket Association will also be attending the meeting tomorrow. — PTI