N. Srinivasan to Stay Away from Shashank Manohar's Crowning Glory
N. Srinivasan, whose camp has lost a lot ground in BCCI's internal politics, is likely to miss Shashank Manohar's election as president but will have his eye on a Supreme Court hearing on a perjury case against Board secretary on October 5
Having lost out on the numbers in the run-up to the Board of Control for Cricket in India's presidential election, N. Srinivasan will now turn his attention to a perjury case against Board secretary Anurag Thakur in Supreme Court on October 5. Sunday's almost-certain election of Shashank Manohar as late Jagmohan Dalmiya's successor will be of no interest to a man whose never-say-die attitude has made Srinivasan a formidable person in cricket politics.
Manohar's election as president in the BCCI's Special General Meeting in Mumbai on Sunday should be a formality. Manohar has been BCCI chief in 2008 and this time, he emerged as a consensus candidate between Anurag Thakur (read Arun Jaitley/BJP) and Sharad Pawar factions. It makes sense for Srinivasan not to attend SGM and nominate a representative from Tamil Nadu instead.
In the numbers game - there are 30 votes -- Srinivasan lost out even after striking a 'deal' with Pawar. Srinivasan's camp lost steam after Vidarbha's Manohar and Ajay Shirke of Maharashtra, both Pawar confidants, objected to a compromise with the beleaguered Tamil Nadu Cricket Association boss, mired in controversy after his son-in-law Gurunath Meiyappan was indicted for betting during IPL 2013.
Manohar, a senior Nagpur lawyer who has a clean image, was backed by the Thakur camp. Manohar was also accepted by the majority of East Zone units, whose turn it is to propose a presidential candidate till 2017. It has been reported that Sourav Ganguly, the newly-elected president of Cricket Association of Bengal, will propose Manohar's name. Either Tripura or Assam could second.
Srinivasan's fate as a cricket administrator is increasingly under cloud. He is still the chairman of International Cricket Council but that status can change if BCCI withdraws his name. The ICC chairmanship is a two-year term and given Srinivasan's rivalry with both Manohar and Thakur, the former BCCI president has his back to the wall.
The perjury case against Thakur has only highlighted the deep fractures within the BCCI. Srinivasan's plea is supported by an affidavit from BCCI treasurer Amitabh Choudhary from Jharkhand, whose name was recently floated as a presidential candidate but died a natural death. The perjury case, sadly, pits two top BCCI officials -- Thakur and Choudhary - for making contradictory statements in court.
The perjury case is based on the BCCI's working committee meeting in Kolkata on August 28. Dalmiya, who died on September 20, had adjourned the meeting sine die because there was no legal clarity on Srinivasan's participation.
Subsequently, the BCCI filed a case seeking Supreme Court's opinion on Srinivasan's stature. According to Srinivasan's plea, Thakur made "false and misleading" statements that amounted to perjury. Even if the allegations against Thakur may look minor in nature, legal battles will only add to the bitterness inside BCCI.