Srinivasan moves Supreme Court against Anurag Thakur

“Shashank Manohar is our consensus candidate“, BCCI secretary Anurag Thakur said in the Capital on Tuesday, adding that the scrutiny of nominations is scheduled for October 3. But his one-liner ended all the talks of who will succeed the late Jagmohan Dalmiya as the president of the world’s most powerful cricket board.

Srinivasan has accused Thakur of making misleading statements in his affidavit filed alongside the BCCI’s plea seeking clarification from the Supreme Court as to whether Srinivasan can be permitted to attend its BCCI meetings or whether there is still a conflict of interest that should keep him away. The October 4 SGM announcement came as per the BCCI Constitution which requires the president’s post to be filled within 15 days in case of the incumbent’s demise.

“Shashank Manohar is our consensus candidate“, he told local media.

Manohar has backing from Sharad Pawar Thakur factions, who control about 20 votes out of 29. It began with Srinivasan meeting Pawar in Nagpur, in the midst of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief’s tour of drought-affected areas in Vidarbha, setting abuzz rumours of a reported alliance between the two BCCI factions.

Srinivasan was earlier in the year asked by the Supreme Court to step aside as the BCCI president to facilitate investigation of the 2013 IPL scandal.

The East Zone, primarily comprising of West Bengal, Jharkhand, Tripura, Assam, Odisha and the National Cricket Club, whose turn it is to name the next president, had initially opted to field Amitabh Chaudhary of the Jharkand Cricket Association (JCA) as a canditate but are yet to make the move official.

In his plea, Srinivasan has not only brought charges of perjury against Thakur but also involved Prime Minister Narendra Modi for endorsing the controversial 6.2.4 clause that allowed BCCI officials to have commercial interests in IPL and the Champions League T20.

However, Srinivasan claimed he was entitled to attend the meeting as President of the Tamil Nadu Cricket Association.

According to sources, it was decided during the meeting that “only a strong person with an impeccable image can take the BCCI out of the ongoing mess”. From the position of king-maker, the serving ICC president now finds himself completely isolated. For now, though, it seems Manohar is coming back for the second innings.