Mumbai: The fact that the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) was forced to take a massive cut (from $570 million to $290 million) in their share of revenue from the parent body of world cricket – International Cricket Council (ICC) just a day earlier has made everyone within the board train guns on former BCCI president and current ICC chairman Shashank Manohar.
A board official, who was among the top three to run the BCCI till the Supreme Court gave them marching orders, said on the condition of anonymity that Manohar’s second stint as president had a clear motive. “When he (Manohar) came back into the BCCI as president for the second term, he used to talk about modifying the rule to become ICC chairman, and that it shouldn’t require nomination from the affiliated members, but should be independent…The same resolution was also passed without any one of us knowing with he still being the president, and then he suddenly resigned, which according to me was planned maneuver,” the official revealed.
The same official accused Manohar of ditching the board which he used a ladder to come to this position. “Manohar should not forget that he has become the ICC chairman due to his association with BCCI. Now he keeps on working against the best interest of the board which completely unfair. Also when he resigned from the BCCI president’s post none of us knew, he did it all of a sudden to realize his dream of becoming the ICC chief,” he rued.
BCCI, it may be recalled, is almost in dire straits within the geographical boundary of the country, thanks to the Supreme Court’s coming down heavily on the working procedure of the board mandarins. The day Manohar took up the coveted chairman’s post, he left no stone unturned to trouble the board he served as secretary and president (on two occasions) in the past. Manohar’s ‘clean’ image tilted the balance in his favour when the board officials were at loggerheads with Narayanswamy Srinivasan following the IPL spot-fixing issue and Supreme Court’s repeated reprimands.
Board’s former vice-president Niranjan Shah though put it quite frankly. “It seems to be the biggest blunder by all of us to allow Manohar to become the ICC chairman. What he has done after becoming the ICC chairman has surprised all of us to say the least,” Shah says in scathing attack on Manohar.
Another official Biswarup Dey, considered a close aide of Srinivasan, called Manohar a ‘bad’ team man. “He was never a team man and always looked after his own interest of power, though having maintained a clean image,” he said.
Earlier, the executive board meeting that was recently held in ICC headquarters in Dubai saw India losing 2-8 on votes while opposing the proposed revenue sharing model. The board was comprehensively voted out on governance structure too. The result here was 1-9 which included Manohar.