Anurag Thakur front-runner for BCCI president's post
If Thakur becomes the BCCI president, the post of secretary will be vacant. However, Manohar is understood to have suggested Ajay Shirke as the suitable candidate for the secretary’s post.
Published : May 12, 2016 20:25 IST
Despite the Supreme Court sword hovering over the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), Shashank Manohar’s resignation as the body's president has thrown the door open for aspiring candidates.
As things stand, Anurag Thakur is the front-runner to be elevated from the secretary to the president’s post. This will leave the secretary’s post open. Rajeev Shukla, chairman of the IPL, is interested in holding the prestigious post. However, Manohar is understood to have suggested Ajay Shirke as the suitable candidate for the secretary’s post.
"I haven’t had any formal or informal approach or discussion about this with anyone in the Board," Shirke told
Shirke resigned as treasurer in May 2013, as a protest to the BCCI’s inaction after Gurunath Meiyappan, a Chennai Super Kings official and son-in-law of the then BCCI chief N. Srinivasan, was arrested for his alleged involvement in the IPL scandal.
Despite Shirke’s resignation midway through his tenure, the BCCI corridors acknowledge the manner in which the streamlining of the treasurer’s office was done during the Pune-based businessman's time. Shirke’s detractors feel he won’t be hands-on as an office-bearer, considering he spends more than half of the year in Europe handling the family business.
However, Shirke doesn’t see it as a problem. "In today’s day and age, one can be accessible all the time. You don’t have to be present in the BCCI office all the time, as long as you are accessible and you put in an effective system in place," he said.
A section of the BCCI members have also been mooting Sourav Ganguly’s name for the secretary’s post. However, they don’t realise that Ganguly is ineligible to be a BCCI office-bearer since he hasn’t attended two annual general meetings.