Narayanaswami Srinivasan was removed as International Cricket Council chairman on Monday after his home board announced it was withdrawing its support, following corruption scandals embroiling the sport in India. Srinivasan will be replaced as head of the sport's world governing body by the powerful Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI)'s current president Shashank Manohar.
"The BCCI representative to the ICC will be Shashank Manohar," BCCI secretary Anurag Thakur told reporters after the board's annual general meeting in Mumbai. "And by virtue of being the board's representative to the ICC he will take over as the ICC chairman." Srinivasan was appointed ICC chief in June last year after being chosen by the BCCI as India's representative to the top role which rotates every two years among cricketing nations.
But the cement tycoon has been caught up in corruption scandals that have hit the glitzy and lucrative Indian Premier League (IPL). The 70-year-old agreed to step aside as BCCI chief after a Supreme Court panel found him guilty of a conflict of interest for having commercial dealings in the sport. Srinivasan is managing director of India Cements which owns the Chennai Super Kings franchise captained by India skipper Mahendra Dhoni. India's top court also found Srinivasan's son-in-law Gurunath Meiyappan guilty of illegal betting while serving as team principal at the Chennai Super Kings and banned him from all cricket-related activities. The court panel this year suspended Chennai Super Kings and another IPL franchise, Rajasthan Royals, from the Twenty20 league for two years due to misconduct by its officials.
ICC rules state that an administrator who is removed by his home board cannot serve in the world governing body, which effectively ends Srinivasan's tenure immediately. Manohar, asked if he was satisfied at the development, said: "There is no question of satisfaction because I never aspired to this." The top post will be handed over to England in 2016 for two years, followed by a representative from Australia. There was no immediate comment from Srinivasan.
Chennai-based Srinivasan rose to become one of the most influential men in world cricket, helped along by the sport's popularity in India that made the BCCI the richest cricket board. But Srinivasan was blamed for the ills surrounding the cash-rich, but faction-ridden, BCCI following the Supreme Court inquiry which led to his downfall. Manohar, who served as BCCI president between 2008 and 2011, took over a second time in October following the death of incumbent Jagmohan Dalmiya on September 20. Manohar, a lawyer by profession, launched a clean-up act to improve the image of the BCCI and ensure it worked as a transparent and honest body. "All the members of the board were unanimous in their approach and were interested in seeing that it functions in a most transparent manner," Manohar said after the AGM.
"Everybody spoke in the meeting in favour of clean and transparent functioning of the board." Former ICC president Sharad Pawar will be the BCCI's alternate representative in the ICC if Manohar is unable to attend meetings, a tweet from the board said. The BCCI also appointed former judge Ajit Prakash Shah as an independent ombudsman to settle internal disputes.
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