Shashank Manohar to complete full tenure as ICC chairman

According to reports, Shashank Manohar has decided to backtrack on his earlier decision of deferring his resignation till the ICC annual conference in June.

A file photo of Shashank Manohar.

Shashank Manohar, the architect of the new ICC Constitution and Financial structure, has acceded to the wishes of greater part of the 13-member International Cricket Council (ICC) Board to complete his first two-year term as Chairman of the world cricket body.

Elected as the ICC’s first independent Chairman in May last year, Manohar, won many friends in the ICC Board and across the cricketing fraternity. He took the initiative to overturn a clutch of resolutions passed in 2014 that created the Big-3 powerhouse in the cricket Boards of India, Australia and England  to control the administration, financial matters and competitions. Recently former West Indies captain Vivian Richards praised Manohar for the position he took on governance issues and money matters.

READ: Shashank Manohar: Timeline of his role as ICC chairman

On two occasions – February and April 2017 – Manohar received overwhelming support to dismantle the Big-3 governance model and bring in a revenue sharing model based on the principle of equity, conscience and common-sense. In between he resigned, but was persuaded to defer his resignation till the ICC’s annual conference in London from June 19 to 23.

After the ICC Board meeting at Dubai on April 26, more than two-thirds of the Board Directors wrote to him saying that they were looking up to him to provide leadership during the implementation of changes that is expected to be approved at the 105- member AGM at London on June 23.

Now that Manohar has agreed to stay on till June 2018, the BCCI—miffed that it has been cut to size at the governance and revenue related aspects—would be in a better position to appeal to the Nagpur-based lawyer to give it a better deal with regard to its standing in the ICC’s administrative structure as well with its higher claim of revenue for the 2016-23 period. Manohar is open to the idea of giving the BCCI additional $ 100 million to the $ 293 million already apportioned.

The BCCI has delegated its Jt. Secretary, Amitabh Choudhary to take up the BCCI’s concerns with the ICC Chairman, who has also shared thoughts with the Supreme Court appointed Committee of Administrators, especially with Chairman Vinod Rai and Vikram Limaye.

On its part the ICC in a short note on Wednesday, said: “Shashank Manohar will continue to function as the Independent Chairman of ICC until the end of his elected term which is June 2018.’’