We will not work with vindictive attitude: Manohar on Srini
Mumbai: Shashank Manohar took over as the new president of the Board of Control for Cricket in India at a Special General Meeting (SGM) of the noard here on Sunday, and immediately spoke of clean-up, transparency, and restoring the board’s lost reputation.
The BCCI chief’s post was lying vacant since incumbent Jagmohan Dalmiya died in Kolkata on September 20, and the SGM was called to choose the new president. As per the BCCI constitution, an SGM to nominate a successor has to be convened within 15 days of the incumbent chief’s death.
Manohar, a lawyer by profession, earlier held the top post from 2008 to 2011. The 58-year-old was elected for a full two-year term as all the six East Zone cricket units unanimously proposed his candidature for the board president’s post.
It was East Zone’s turn this time around to pick the president, and all six associations of the zone proposed Manohar’s name. As he was the lone candidate in the fray, Manohar was elected for the second time.
Among the six proposers of Manohar’s name was Dalmiya’s son Avishek, who was representing the National Cricket Club (NCC) in the SGM.
The others backing Manohar for the board chief’s post were Sourav Ganguly from Bengal, Sourav Dasgupta from Tripura, Gautam Roy from Assam, Ashirbad Behera of Odisha, and Sanjay Singh of the Jharkhand State Cricket Association (JSCA).
Manohar has had his fair share of differences with former board chief N. Srinivasan, but made it clear that he holds the Tamil Nadu strongman’s administrative abilities in high esteem.
He aid that the new dispensation would not have a “vindictive attitude” towards anyone including former chief N Srinivasan, whom he termed as “one of the best secretaries” of the board.
“We are not working here with a vindictive attitude. The entire Board — all 30 members including the Tamil Nadu CA (headed by Srinivasan) was united that all of us have to work together to build the image of this Board. For that, we can’t fight amongst ourselves and have any vindictive attitude when we decide on matters,” said Manohar, without elaborating anything about Srtinivasan’s future as chairman of ICC.
“I can tell you Srinivasan was an excellent secretary, he was better than most of the secretaries I have come across in the Board. He was one of the best secretaries to have as I found out during my (2008-09 to 2010-11) tenure.”
“I don’t know what happened after I completed my term in 2011. I was not in touch. Srinivasan was by far the best secretary after Mr Dalmiya,” Manohar said.
However, he left it to the general body of the Board to decide whether to continue to nominate Srinivasan’s name as the chairman of the International Cricket Council.
“The General Body has to decide at the AGM,” he answered. (Agencies)