Anurag Thakur elected new BCCI President replacing Manohar

Mumbai: Anurag Thakur was unanimously elected BCCI President replacing Shashank Manohar in the Board's Special General Meeting (SGM) here on Sunday. Manohar stepped down from the position to take up the ICC chief's job. The 41-year-old Thakur has become BCCI’s second youngest President.

Maharashtra Cricket Association chief and business magnate Ajay Shirke, elected as BCCI Secretary, expectedly filled in the Secretary's post which was left vacant by Thakur's resignation on Saturday.

Senior BCCI vice-president CK Khanna chaired the Special General Meeting (SGM) and announced Thakur's name for the top job.

On Saturday, the BJP MP got the signatures of all six east zone units in his BCCI presidential nomination form as he completed the formalities in presence of former India captain and CAB president Sourav Ganguly.

Just to show solidarity, all the six east units, Cricket Association of Bengal, Assam CA, Tripura CA, NCC and Jharkhand SCA signed his nomination papers whereas the rules require only one unit to nominate the name for presidential candidate.

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Thakur will be taking over the reins of the embattled Board in rather tough times as the BCCI is facing heat from the Supreme Court to implement the Justice RM Lodha Committee's recommendations for sweeping reforms.

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Thakur, incidentally, will go into the books as the first first-class cricketer to turn BCCI president after Raj Singh Dungarpur lay down office in 1998-99.

Cricket legend Sunil Gavaskar had held the post jointly with another Test cricketer Shivlal Yadav briefly. They were specifically in charge of IPL affairs that had been done at the direction of the Supreme Court which ordered then President N Srinivasan to step aside in the wake of the 2013 IPL betting and spot-fixing scandal.

While Raj had played 86 first-class matches for Rajasthan and the then Madhya Bharat as a medium pacer and also claimed 206 wickets, Thakur has represented HP in a lone Ranji Trophy game as a right-hand batsman and off break bowler in 2000-11 season.

Also Read: Anurag Thakur is not BCCI’s youngest President

Thakur is also the third person backed by East Zone to be elected to the top post during the 2014-1017 period. Jagmohan Dalmiya, who was the consensus candidate after Srinivasan's exit, died in office last year and Manohar took over in October, 2015.

Manohar's exit from the top post barely seven months into his tenure has necessitated the election of the new chief of the world's richest and most powerful cricket body. He was elected as ICC's first independent chairman on May 12.

Once Thakur is elected unopposed, it would be his prerogative to pick his replacement for the Secretary's position. According to sources, Maharashtra Cricket Association (MCA) chief and business magnate Ajay Shirke is the top contender for the post.

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Shirke, however, has made it clear that he will not "stand in a queue" to get a post in the Board.

"I have never put myself in contention for any top job within the BCCI nor do I have any goals of getting any posts. My name may be doing the rounds as you say, and it might look to many that I am myself pushing my name in the media, which I have never done," he had stated.

Also Read: I was forced to quit, says outgoing BCCI chief Shashank Manohar

The SGM will be followed by the working committee meeting of the Board. "Agenda for the meeting is a normal one," sources said.