'All the six associations from the East Zone nominated the name of Mr Shashank Manohar'
'There was no other nomination received'
Shashank Manohar, who was the Board of Control for Cricket in India chief from 2008 to 2011, is all set to take over from Jagmohan Dalmiya, who passed away last month.
His appointment was all but confirmed on Saturday, when he was the only candidate to file his nomination for the BCCI president’s post.
The special general meeting of the Board to announce the name of the new president will be held on Sunday.
BCCI secretary Anurag Thakur confirmed that Manohar has the backing of all the six associations from East Zone – Cricket Association of Bengal, National Cricket Club (Kolkata), Jharkhand Cricket Association, Odisha Cricket Association, Assam Cricket Association and Tripura Cricket Association.
“All the six associations from the East Zone nominated the name of Mr Shashank Manohar for the post of president. There was no other nomination received. Since there is no other nomination received, all the associations from East Zone nominated Mr Shashank Manohar’s name and (it was) seconded by many other members. So I congratulate Mr Shashank Manohar and we will wait for the formal meeting to happen tomorrow,” Thakur said, in Mumbai on Saturday evening.
He further added that all the members believe that Manohar had done an impressive job in his previous term and was the best candidate to steer BCCI out of the current crisis it is going through.
“After the sad demise of Mr Dalmiya, it was very important to continue the reforms, which has taken place in the last six months. We have seen the previous tenure of Mr Shashank Manohar where his work has been appreciated by everyone and we believe under his leadership the BCCI will continue with the reforms which has taken place under the leadership of Mr Jagmohan Dalmiya in the last six months.
“I personally feel with him, the kind of experience he has an administrator, it is going to benefit the BCCI in their day-to-day functioning,” he said.
Former India captain Sourav Ganguly, who is set to take over as the Cricket Association of Bengal president, also gave his backing to Manohar, saying the BCCI will be “in good hands”.
“BCCI has had some respectable people running the Board in different times, different people come, different people run the board; they are all capable. Mr Manohar is equally capable and, hopefully, the Board as it was is in good hands,” he said.
Maharashtra Cricket Association president Ajay Shirke said Manohar’s experience as a lawyer would come handy for the BCCI.
“He comes with a lot of experience, he comes with a lot of backing with his integrity and legal background as well. In the present situation I don’t think we could have had a better candidate than him.”