Shashank Manohar will continue as Independent Chairman of the International Cricket Council (ICC) till June 2018.
Mr. Manohar, architect of the new ICC Constitution and Financial structure, acceded to the wishes of the majority of the 13-member ICC Board to complete his first two-year term as chairman of the world cricket body.
“Shashank Manohar will continue to function as the Independent Chairman of ICC until the end of his elected term, which is June 2018,” the ICC stated on Wednesday.
Elected as the ICC’s first Independent Chairman in May 2016, Mr. Manohar won many friends in the ICC Board and across the cricketing fraternity, after he took the initiative to overturn a clutch of resolutions passed in 2014 that created the Big Three powerhouse of the cricket boards of India, Australia and England to control the administration, financial matters and competitions.
Former West Indies captain Vivian Richards recently praised Mr. Manohar for the position he took on governance issues and money matters.
On two occasions – February and April 2017 – Mr. Manohar received overwhelming support to dismantle the Big Three governance model and bring in a revenue-sharing model based on the principle of equity, conscience and common sense. In between he resigned, but was persuaded to defer his resignation till the ICC’s annual conference in London from June 19 to 23.
After the ICC Board meeting in Dubai on April 26, more than two-thirds of the Board Directors wrote to him saying that they were looking up to him to provide leadership during the implementation of changes that is expected to be approved at the 105- member AGM in London on June 23.
Now that Mr. Manohar has agreed to stay on till June 2018, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) – miffed at being cut to size in governance and revenue related aspects - would be in a better position to appeal to the Nagpur based lawyer to give it a better deal with regard to its standing in the ICC’s administrative structure as well as with its higher claim of revenue for the 2016-23 period.
Mr. Manohar is open to the idea of giving the BCCI an additional $100 million to the $293 million already apportioned.
The BCCI has delegated its Joint Secretary Amitabh Choudhary to take up the BCCI’s concerns with the ICC Chairman, who has also shared his thoughts with the Supreme Court appointed Committee of Administrators, especially with its Chairman, Vinod Rai, and Vikram Limaye.
