Shashank Manohar
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A profile
The Times of India, Sep 30 2015
Sumit Mukherjee profiles Shashank Manohar, the Nagpur-based lawyer, who has the onerous task of reviving the strife-torn BCCI as he pads up for a new innings
He may have left his crick et-playing days far be hind, but Shashank Manohar has always seen life as an extension of the game. Perhaps that's why he treats every administrative issue on merit, just as our coaches advise us to play the ball when at the crease. There has never been anything flashy about him and he is known to play with a straight bat, irrespective of whether he is arguing a point in the court or making one at a BCCI meeting. Despite the hype and glamour surrounding the game, his vision remains uncoloured. He trusts people implicitly but can be ruthless if someone betrays his trust. Unusually for a successful lawyer, he can be blunt and rarely attempts to camouflage his intentions.
The best thing about Manohar is that he has no hidden agenda, nor is he in love with the chair to which he is set to return on October 4 for a second term as the BCCI president.
Manohar believes in keeping his own counsel and hates being in the spotlight. Perhaps that's why he shuns media attention and hates to see himself on TV channels. However, he would be the last person to back out on any issue if he believes in it. He doesn't carry a cell phone or a watch, didn't have a passport until 2007, and had never travelled abroad till he flew to Dubai to attend the ICC meeting in 2008.Also, unlike many other BCCI members, Manohar is a man of few words.
But when he does speak, he usually makes an impact. He certainly did so when the bids were first tabled for the two new IPL teams in 2010. Only two bidders qualified, leading to a stream of complaints that the draconian norms had been deliberately `fixed' to ensure that only favoured parties could participate in the auction. Manohar promptly launched into Lalit Modi, even as the then IPL governing council members, including the likes of Sunil Gavaskar, Ravi Shastri, Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi and Arun Jaitley listened to him with rapt attention. Not a single dissenting voice was raised and no one spoke up in support of Modi.
That paved the way for a fresh auction, where the BCCI raked in a cool $703 million from the two new franchises. Manohar won all-round praise for ensuring a fair auction.
Manohar showed that he was his own man when he threw out Modi, hours after the IPL 2010 final, suspending him on 22 charges of nepotism and corruption, in spite of pressure from his peers to go soft on the man who had conceptualized and turned the IPL into a multi-million dollar tournament. It hardly bothered Manohar, who has always maintained that he has no vested interest in the BCCI.
Manohar earned his spurs in the BCCI when he masterminded Sharad Pawar's electoral coup in 2005, becoming an influential figure in the BCCI after Pawar became president.
Manohar's close relationship with Pawar goes back a long way . His father, V R Manohar was the advocate general of Maharashtra when Pawar was chief minister. In 2008, Manohar senior had handled Harbhajan Singh's legal defence during the `Monkeygate' controversy in Australia.
Manohar junior followed his father's footsteps into law, but also rose rapidly as a cricket administrator, taking charge of the Vidarbha Cricket Association (VCA) in 1996.His son, Adwait, is now a vice-president of the VCA.
Manohar was at the helm of VCA when Team India arrived to play a crucial Test against Australia at Nagpur in 2003-04 and were confronted with a green top. Coincidentally or otherwise, then skipper Sourav Ganguly fell ill and pulled out of the match, in which India were soundly walloped as Australia conquered their `Final Frontier.' All that, however, is water under the bridge. Over the years, Sourav and Manohar have not only mended fences but also developed a healthy respect for each other. Sourav, in fact, played his farewell Test in Nagpur in 2008 against Australia. And now, exactly 11 years after their infamous stand-off, an incredible twist of fate will see both Manohar and Sourav succeed Jagmohan Dalmiya at BCCI and CAB, respectively .
In 2008, Manohar succeeded Pawar at the helm of the BCCI and ruled with an iron hand. He cleaned up the IPL mess, ushered in fiscal discipline and showed that you don't have to be a marketing whizkid to sell cricket in India.
In his first term, he had inherited a stable administration from Pawar.A much bigger and complex task awaits him when he takes guard in his second innings.
Controversies
The Times of India, Sep 30 2015
GANGULY DODGES QUESTIONS ON ISSUE
Mumbai: Former India captain and incumbent Cricket Association of India (CAB) president Sourav Ganguly remained non-committal on his association's support for Shashank Manohar as the BCCI president.
Asked whether he will support Manohar's name in the BCCI meeting on October 4, Ganguly said: “We cannot talk right now, we will see what happens ahead.“
On CAB or East Zone states not having a candidate for BCCI presidency, the 43-year-old Ganguly said, “I am not yet the president of CAB. I am still the secretary. We will have to wait and watch. We will see, we will have to follow BCCI norms.“
Meanwhile, Ganguly made it clear that it was not the time to talk about BCCI's plans to appoint different coach for Test and ODIs. “Ravi Shastri has done a good job,“ he said. PTI
Career highlights
March 16, 2017: The Times of India
Coming from a family of lawyers, Shashank Manohar is himself a prominent lawyer and cricket administrator from Nagpur.
Was the president of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) from 2008 to 2011.He quit after India won the World Cup.
Following a revolt against ex BCCI president & ICC chairman N Srinivasan, he returned as the BCCI president from Oct 2015. In Nov 2015, he introduced a series of reforms in the BCCI, like appointment of an ombudsman to look into conflict of interest issues, hiring leading accountancy firm Deloitte under `project transformation', which went on to highlight massive corruption in a few BCCI state units. Became the chairman of the ICC from November 2015, dethroning Srinivasan. In May 2016, he quit both the BCCI and the ICC, before going on to become the first independent chairman of the ICC.
His detractors in the BCCI at that time said he left a sinking ship for the safer confines of the ICC. He countered that the he quit the BCCI because he would be unable to implement the Lodha reforms in the board, and he felt that the ICC must have an independent chairman.
As the ICC chairman, he had several run-ins with the BCCI on the revenue sharing pattern. His decision to bring in constitutional reforms was severely opposed by the BCCI. Quit the ICC on March 15, 2017 due to “personal reasons“, thus ending prematurely what was supposed to be a two-year term at the helm.
