Zimpapers Logo

Shashank Manohar

EVEN though Shashank Manohar maintained that his stepping down as independent chairman of the International Cricket Council (ICC) had nothing to do with the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), there is a lot of speculation that his tiff with the cricket board was the catalyst for his resignation.

The Pune man stepped down after spending a mere eight months of the stipulated term of two years.

Speaking to Sunday Guardian, a BCCI source said the Indian board had exerted a lot of pressure on the ICC to ensure that Manohar was left with no other option.

“Look, it’s not a secret that the relationship between the BCCI and ICC had become quite frosty ever since Manohar had come to power. In fact, he was directly responsible for certain actions which hurt the BCCI,” said the source.

It is reliably learnt that the BCCI was going to block the constitutional and revenue reforms which were initiated by the Manohar-led ICC which proved to be the last nail.

The BCCI source said that “the board (BCCI) had taken the necessary steps to block the constitutional and other financial reforms which were the brainchild of Manohar. He also knew that once the BCCI blocked the reforms he could not get it passed. It would have resulted in a huge loss of face for him and he didn’t want that to happen so he resigned,” said the source.

The BCCI official also said for any reform to be passed in the ICC council, it required a two thirds majority.

“The fact that the BCCI managed to get the support of the Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe boards would have enabled it to effectively thwart the reforms. So I think Shashank saw the writing on the wall and resigned to avoid the huge embarrassment,” the source said.

Manohar (59) announced his decision to quit on Wednesday. He maintained that he took this step due to personal reasons and said he had already made up his mind even before meeting the Supreme Court-appointed Committee of Administrators (CoA), which is presently running the BCCI, a day before he resigned.

“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,” Manohar was quoted as saying by ESPNcricinfo. Manohar also turned down any plans of reconsidering his decision.

Manohar said he had revealed to CoA members Vikram Limaye and Vinod Rai, during his meeting last Tuesday that he was going to leave the ICC.

— Sunday Guardian