Shashank Manohar all set to become new BCCI president

Shashank Manohar is all set to be elected unopposed as the new BCCI president

Shashank Manohar is set to be elected unopposed as the new president of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), IBNLive reports. The Vidarbha-based lawyer alone filed a nomination for the post and he received unanimous backing from all the six units of the East Zone.

The BCCI is set to elect its new president at the Special General Meeting (SGM) scheduled for Sunday at Mumbai after the post was left vacant following the sudden demise of Jagmohan Dalmiya on September 20.

Manohar emerged as the front-runner for the president’s post early on with his clean image as a cricket administrator pinning him as the consensus candidate of both the Arun Jaitley-Anurag Thakur combine and Sharad Pawar.

The East Zone had the right to nominate the next president and all the six associations, including Dalmiya's son Avishek, who is representing his family club National Cricket Club (NCC), has proposed Manohar's name.

"All the six units of East Zone separately proposed Manohar's name to show that they are firmly backing his candidature," a representative from East Zone said.

The others who also proposed Manohar's name are Sourav Ganguly from Bengal, Sourav Dasgupta from Tripura, Gautam Roy from Assam, Ashirbad Behera of Odisha and Sanjay Singh of the Jharkhand State Cricket Association (JSCA).

Ganguly, who was appointed Cricket Association of Bengal president following Dalmiya’s demise, and Maharashtra Cricket Association’s Ajay Shirke, came out and explained the rationale behind the decision to back Manohar, who was the BCCI chief for the three years between 2008-09 and 2010-11.

"Shashank Manohar has led BCCI in the past and is a capable person. I am sure he will do a good job," said Ganguly.

Shirke on his part said: "He is the right candidate. All six East Zone units have proposed his name. He comes with lot of experience and integrity. He has a legal background and we would not have got a better candidate at this point of time."

Anurag Thakur looking forward to Manohar’s presidency

It may not be official yet, but BCCI secretary Anurag Thakur is already looking forward to working under Manohar. He believes the board will continue to prosper the way it did under Dalmiya’s leadership.

"After the sad demise of Mr. Dalmiya. It was important to continue the reforms taken place in last six months. We have seen the previous tenure of Manohar, where his work has been appreciated by everyone and we believe under his leadership BCCI will continue with the reforms which have taken place under Dalmiya's leadership," Thakur said. "I personally believe that with his experience, it was going to benefit of BCCI on day to day basis."

Thakur confirmed that Manohar was the only candidate in the running.

"All the 6 associations from East Zone nominated Shashank Manohar's name for the post of president. No other nominations was received. Since there is no other nomination was received, all associations of East Zone nominated Shashank Manohar and was seconded by many other units. So I congratulate Manohar and will wait for the formal meeting," Thakur said.