Mumbai: The BCCI AGM scheduled for Monday, might leave the giants of cricket administration over the last decade, gasping in throes of death, as Shashank Manohar, the new President of the BCCI is expected to announce a slew of measures to clean up Indian cricket – especially in regard to the issue of conflict of interest. The Nagpur-based lawyer is known for his no nonsense style of working.
Manohar could possibly rule that any current player will not have any business interest in a player management company and shall not accept controlling positions with any BCCI stakeholders. Similarly, cricketers on the payroll of the BCCI or holding contracts with BCCI shall not be on any BCCI committees including the IPL GC. No BCCI official or administrator will be on the payroll of an IPL franchise nor be associated with a player management company. These are very real possibilities on the subject of conflict of interest.
FreeCharge, an online recharge platform that was bought by Snapdeal for a whopping $400m a couple of months ago, has come on board with the IPL as an associate sponsor for Rs 60 crore for two years. It is learnt that getting FreeCharge aboard was one of the final deals that ex-IPL COO Sundar Raman worked on before making his way out.
While there’s been speculation over who will replace Raman as IPL COO and if the BCCI will rope in a professional, there is also a chance that the board might consider someone from within. A younger team had been working with Raman at the Cricket Centre and sources say one of the employees, who worked closely with Raman, could be promoted while the board will seek to bring in a new operations head following Peter Griffith’s the IMG official who looked after operations resignation a couple of months ago.
While all signs indicate that N Srinivasan may be asked by the BCCI to vacate the ICC chairman’s position that he’s been holding since June 26, 2014, it is not certain yet if Manohar the present board chief will replace him. As on Friday, sources said Manohar may look at ‘someone capable’ to replace the TN administrator and will take over only if he’s left with no other choice.
