Sport - BBCI's next board?

Officially it will be known only on September 27 — the first day of the Board of Control for Cricket in India’s two-day Annual General Meeting — but contours of Team Shashank Manohar are becoming clearer and clearer as the D-Day approaches.

It was long clear that N Srinivasan will be the new secretary just as Manohar, currently the president-elect, will step into the shoes of Sharad Pawar. The two heavyweights from Tamil Nadu and Vidarbha enjoy a good working relationship and one learns that they have finalised their team some time back.

The biggest challenge for them is where and how to accommodate the two big-wigs of the current set-up — Niranjan Shah and Rajiv Shukla, particularly the former. Shah, the face of the present dispensation, could be roped in an ‘important’ advisory role and may also be given the chairmanship of a powerful committee like finance or tours and fixtures.

Rotations and equi-representations of the zones are the usual norms in the Board’s set-up but this time the balance could heavily tilt towards a couple the zones.

The treasurer’s position is almost certain to go to current joint secretary MP Pandove and the new joint secretary, as was already reported in this paper, could be current national selector Sanjay Jagdale.

But Jadgale may face some resistance as South’s Brijesh Patel is an aspirant. The former India cricketer has thrown his hat into the ring. “That is an important position as it deals with junior cricket, umpires and the NCA. I am keen for that role,” Brijesh told DNA. How many votes he can muster is to be seen.

Among the vice-president, a new face is likely in the form of Arun Jaitley. The noted lawyer and former union Minster will be the North Zone’s representative. The current vice-president from the zone, Lalit Modi, will represent his home zone —Central. The present vice-president from Central of course is Manohar.

From West, incumbent Chirayu Amin is likely to continue and from East it will be Tripura’s Arindam Ganuly.

That leaves one zone — South. A candidate has not yet been finalized as the short listed candidates do not fulfill the requirements. Originally, it is the turn of Andhra Cricket Association but its strongman and secretary Chamunderswarnath has not attended AGM twice, a mandatory requirement to qualify for the post.

The thinking now is to leave the post to Hyderabad but coincidentally Hyderabad Cricket Association president G Vinod has also not attended two AGMs. So HCA secretary Shivlal Yadav could be the South’s candidate but don’t be surprised if one Vijay Mallya bags the position.

And now to Shukla. It is not yet clear but the current vice-president from North might be made the in charge of a high-profile media position. But you never know what could happen at the last minute. Because in BCCI, they say, anything can happen.