A concerted move to persuade BCCI president Shashank Manohar to continue as chairman of the International Cricket Council (ICC) post June 2016 will gather momentum when a series of departmental, chief executive committee and executive board meetings take place in Dubai from Friday.
Manohar will leave for the April round of meetings on Thursday.
The ICC’s annual conference will be held in June, when the BCCI’s term and thereby Manohar’s position as ICC chairman will come to an end. Manohar (elected BCCI president in October 2015) replaced N. Srinivasan (elected the first ICC chairman in June 2014) in November 2015.
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It was in 2014 that the ICC endorsed radical constitutional changes that bestowed executive powers on the cricket boards of India, Australia and England. The architects of this move were Srinivasan (BCCI), Giles Clarke (England and Wales Cricket Board) and Wally Edwards (Cricket Australia).
It was widely expected that Clarke would succeed Manohar, but sources reveal that a majority of the ICC full members are opposed to this. In fact, in the last two months, David Peever (Cricket Australia), Nazmul Hassan (Bangladesh), Gregor Barclay (New Zealand), Chris Nenzani (South Africa), Thilanga Sumathipala (Sri Lanka) and Tavengwa Mukuhlani (Zimbabwe) visited Nagpur to impress upon Manohar to continue as ICC chairman for the 2016-18 term. West Indies Cricket Board president Dave Cameron is also on the BCCI chief’s side.
After taking charge as ICC chairman, Manohar used strong words against the constitutional changes, saying “the big three should not bully the ICC”.
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He also disapproved of the proposed disproportionate disbursement of ICC revenues for the 2016-23 cycle and pointed out the potential conflict of interest issues that would arise when the same person chairs the full member and also the ICC.
In this context, Manohar’s proposal to make the ICC chairman independent of the full member has been approved by the ICC executive board; a resolution giving effect to this important aspect of the governance structure, though, has to be adopted at the annual conference.
The constitutional changes in 2014, which made the BCCI, ECB and CA powerful, also allowed for a country-board chief to head the ICC. This was not the case when Sharad Pawar became the ICC president in 2010; Pawar did not hold any position in the BCCI or Mumbai Cricket Association then.
The events that unfold in the coming days — crucially the Supreme Court’s order after it completes the BCCI’s reply and intervention applications to the reforms in cricket recommended by the three-member Justice Lodha Committee — will offer clarity on the future of the BCCI’s governance structure and, more importantly, that of Manohar in cricket administration.
As of now, it looks as though both the ICC and BCCI need the Nagpur-based lawyer to lead their administrative set-ups.