The Shashank Redemption

The last time Sharad Pawar and N Srinivisan came together in the boardroom of BCCI politics was in 2005 to cast out a man who had ruled the Board for over half a century. Pawar became president, Srinivisan became treasurer, and Jagmohan Dalmiya, whose proxy for the post of president had just been defeated, was banned from BCCI meetings. An FIR was filed against him, and he was formally expelled from the Board on the charges of embezzlement.

Exactly a decade later, Pawar and Srinivisan met again at a meeting in Nagpur. Dalmiya had passed away. And the post of BCCI chief was once again available for cunning machinations. Srinivasan wanted to offer his supporters’ sway in the BCCI to get Pawar elected, according to a source in the Tamil Nadu Cricket Association (TNCA), in lieu of the BCCI’s continued support of Srinivasan as ICC chief.

But it was going to be more complicated than that. The East Zone, where Dalmiya was from, wanted a candidate from that region. Sourav Ganguly suddenly emerged in the fray as the chief of the Cricket Association of Bengal and National Cricket Club. The name of Rajeev Shukla, the IPL chairman, was doing the rounds. And within days of Pawar and Srinivasan’s meeting, two of Pawar’s most trusted loyalists, Ajay Shirke and Shashank Manohar were found conducting a secret meeting with a top BJP leader and BCCI secretary Anurag Thakur. Secret negotiations and number crunching, it appeared, was occurring everywhere, with not a candidate who would appeal to a majority of factions, to be found.

A candidate has almost been decided upon. Shashank Manohar, a former BCCI president and Pawar’s trusted ally, in all likelihood, will be proposed at the Board’s upcoming special general meeting. Both Shirke and Thakur have publicly declared so. “Shashank Manohar is the most likely choice for a consensus candidate,” says Dileep Premachandran, editor-in-chief of Wisden. “Someone who is seen as an efficient and clean administrator. His image goes well with what the current dispensation wants to project—that of cleaning up the board.”

Manohar, a well-known lawyer in Nagpur, has been a close confidant of Pawar for years. His father, VR Manohar, was the advocate general of Maharashtra when Pawar served as the state’s Chief Minister. When Pawar vacated the post of BCCI chief in 2008 to become the ICC vice-president, he had his trusted lieutenant elected to the post.

Manohar is seen as someone uninterested in the pursuit of power. He shuns the spotlight and is considered something of an introvert. He apparently does not keep a cellphone, rarely gives media interviews, and travelled abroad for the first time in 2008 to attend an ICC meeting. After he became BCCI president, he gave up, unlike other BCCI chiefs, the post of the head of Vidarbha Cricket Association, which he had held for around 12 years. Someone like Srinivasan, for instance, despite being in and out of power in the BCCI, has held on to his TNCA post, even amending this association’s constitution, now for a record 14 consecutive years. Manohar, in contrast, has often said he would not return as BCCI president.

According to a source aware of the developments, Pawar had been keen to become the Board’s president. Manohar and Shirke, who were averse to any deal with Srinivasan, convinced Pawar against it. The Anurag Thakur faction did not want Srinivasan to get a toehold of power within the board, but were unwilling to support Pawar’s candidacy either. Shukla, who enjoys some support, wasn’t seen as a suitable replacement. “Manohar wasn’t just the best choice,” the source says, “He was the only choice.”

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Lhendup G Bhutia

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