Anurag Thakur promises ‘honest president’
Thakur’s comments come as a stamp of approval for Manohar, who is known as the Mr Clean in Indian cricket
Chennai: As Shashank Manohar is all set to return to the BCCI chief post, secretary Anurag Thakur on Sunday joined the clarion call by saying there will be an “honest president” at the helm of Indian cricket. Manohar is known for his steadfast and clean image.
Thakur, a BJP MP, said that the BCCI would only appoint someone who can bring in transparency and accountability as the next president of the board. “One who can help us in bringing more transparency and accountability to bring in reforms, only that person can be the BCCI president,” ANI quoted Thakur as saying. We will give you a honest president who can bring in reforms,” he added.
Thakur’s comments come as a stamp of approval for Manohar, who is known as the Mr Clean in Indian cricket. In an interesting but altogether unexpected turn events, former president Manohar emerged as the favourite for the BCCI’s top post with the ruling Thakur faction as well as Sharad Pawar group projecting him as the consensus candidate for the position left vacant by Jagmohan Dalmiya’s demise.
The 57-year-old Vidarbha lawyer was the BCCI chief from 2008 to 2011 before N. Srinivasan succeeded him. “It took a lot of persuasion from Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and Anurag Thakur to convince a reluctant Manohar to take up the top job all over again. The deal was clinched when Pawar, the leader of Manohar’s group, also gave his go-ahead in the matter along with former treasurer Shirke,” a senior BCCI official told PTI.
With the Thakur and Pawar faction coming together, Manohar has now assured himself of at least 15 votes out of the 29, the magic figure required to grab the hot seat. This also dashes Tamil Nadu strongman Srinivasan’s hopes of putting up his favoured candidate for the top job.
Manohar, who has been a staunch critic of Srinivasan since the IPL spot-fixing scandal broke out, was completely against the rumoured alliance between Srinivasan and Pawar after the two former BCCI presidents met in Nagpur recently. Once Manohar openly voiced his displeasure about the rumoured alliance, Pawar had no option but to honour the sentiments of his faction as both Manohar and Shirke had time and again criticised Srinivasan’s ways of workings.
Either Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB) or National Cricket Club (NCC) — both controlled by former India captain Sourav Ganguly — is likely to propose Monahor’s candidature as this is the turn of East zone.