Srini set for fight to the finish

Sabi Hussain

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Tribune News Service

New Delhi, September 30

Former BCCI president N Srinivasan, who seems to have been isolated in the board politics, is not ready to call it quits yet. Srinivasan, who wishes to get a friendly candidate installed as the new BCCI president, suffered a setback when Shashank Manohar emerged as a consensus candidate for the post. Manohar has been a very sharp-tongued critic of Srinivasan, especially after the 2013 IPL spot-fixing scandal emerged. However, Srinivasan is still keeping his rivals in the BCCI on the edge with his last-ditch efforts.

It has been reliably learnt that Srinivasan has approached the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) chief Amit Shah — who is also the current Gujarat Cricket Association (GCA) president — to discuss matters related to the BCCI’s Special General Meeting (SGM) on October 4 in Mumbai. A decision regarding the next board president would be taken at the SGM.

BCCI secretary Anurag Thakur has announced that Manohar, who had the job from 2008 to 2011, is the only candidate for the post, which fell vacant after the demise of Jagmohan Dalmiya earlier this month.

However, some confusion still prevails on whether the Srinivasan camp would actually put up its own candidate to make it a two-way contest, or whether Manohar would be elected to the top post without an election.

Sources say that it is in this context that Srinivasan has apparently decided to meet the political heavyweights of the ruling party on Thursday, as another top BJP leader is likely to be present in the meeting with Shah.

If the sources are to be believed, the meeting may not last very long as Shah is currently on a week-long tour of Bihar and is expected to be back in the capital for a few hours to meet Srinivasan. “One can’t say with certainty what will happen next. It all depends on what has been discussed between the BCCI and BJP bigwigs,” a source said.

The source also informed that Manohar has been asked to attend the meeting. But it may not work out as the Nagpur-based lawyer is unlikely to engage in any parleys with Srinivasan.

Manohar has already garnered the support for his candidature from the BJP after his meeting with veteran BJP leader Arun Jaitley at the latter’s residence last weekend. If Manohar gets the top job, there is every possibility that Chennai Super Kings (CSK) and Rajasthan Royals (RR) could be scrapped from the IPL due to their owners’ misdeeds in the spot-fixing scandal.

The scenario of Manohar emerging as the potential president has made Srinivasan vulnerable. The serving ICC president is looking at ways to save CSK, which he owns, from getting scrapped.

“He is also keen to complete his two-year term as the ICC chairman, but Manohar is unlikely to allow him to continue representing the board at the ICC,” another source said.

It would be interesting to see what emerges from the meeting between Shah and Srinivasan — in case it indeed goes ahead as planned, because Manohar might decide to stay away from it.