BCCI ousts Srini as ICC chief

Drops Binny, Kumble from committees

Taking forward its image makeover agenda, the BCCI on Monday brought in a slew of changes by ending N Srinivasan’s tenure as ICC chairman and nominating its chief Shashank Manohar to the post.

The development virtually marks the end of Srinivasan's career as a cricket administrator at the highest level. The 70-year-old managing director of India Cements Limited is currently the president of the Tamil Nadu Cricket Association (TNCA).

The decisions were taken at the 86th Annual General Body Meeting of the Board which also named Justice (retd) A P Shah as the ombudsman to deal with any complaints on conflict of interest, besides making changes to its sub-committees to negate such issues. Team India director Ravi Shastri was dropped from the IPL Governing Council while Roger Binny was removed from the selection panel. Former captain Sourav Ganguly was appointed chairman of the technical committee. He will replace Anil Kumble.

“Everybody spoke in the meeting in favour of a clean and transparent board,” Manohar told reporters after the meeting.

 “The BCCI representative to the ICC will be Shashank Manohar. Being the Board representative in the ICC, he will take over as the ICC chairman,” said BCCI secretary Anurag Thakur. In case Manohar is unable to attend ICC meetings, Sharad Pawar will represent BCCI, he said.

The tenure of Srinivasan, who took over in June 2014, was to end in June 2016 and the remainder of the term would be completed by Manohar, who took over as the BCCI chief on October 4.

Binny, whose son Stuart currently plays for the Indian team, will be replaced in the selection panel by M S K Prasad from the South Zone. Gagan Khoda is the other new member of the selection committee. He will replace Rajinder Singh Hans. On Binny’s removal, Manohar said the decision would ensure that Stuart does not face criticism for being a selector’s son. “The perception has to change, there should not be injustice on Stuart Binny, we cannot destroy his career. He can’t be drawing flak from the media that because he is Roger Binny’s son, he cannot play,” he explained.

BCCI vice-president Rajiv Shukla was retained as chairman of the IPL Governing Council which would include Jyotiraditya Scindia, M P Pandove, Ajay Shirke and Ganguly.

BCCI also decided to give Test status to a clutch of new venues, bringing in Visakhapatnam, Ranchi, Indore, Dharamsala, Pune and Rajkot.

To a query on whether Delhi would host the fourth India-South Africa Test next month given the infighting in the DDCA, Thakur said: “By November 17, DDCA has to come back to Board with all permissions from the state government, if they don't, then the match would be shifted to Pune.”