No Srinivasan at BCCI special general meeting

N Srinivasan will not be attending the BCCI Special General Meeting on Sunday, paving the way for Shashank Manohar to be unanimously elected as the next president of the board.

Srinivasan had previously attended meetings in his capacity as Tamil Nadu Cricket Association (TNCA) head, but PS Raman, a vice-president of the TNCA, will represent the state association at the SGM. "My authorisation has already gone. I'm attending definitely. Srinivasan is not attending," Raman told ESPNcricinfo. Raman was also TNCA's representative in an earlier working committee meeting.

The move effectively signals defeat for the Srinivasan camp - Srinivasan himself is understood to be not keen on pursuing the matter of the BCCI presidency further.

"He has learnt to remain detached from the goings on in the BCCI," an insider from Srinivasan's camp said. "He is anyway going to be out of the BCCI scene until 2017, so it doesn't matter to him who becomes president. At the moment, he's focused on his cement business and working on bringing his golfing handicap down."

Until about a week ago, after a bid to strike a deal with Sharad Pawar with regards to the BCCI presidency fizzled out, Srinivasan was pinning his hopes on a meeting with Amit Shah - president of the Gujarat Cricket Association as well as India's ruling political party, the BJP, which is said to have enormous clout in the BCCI - to restore parity to the election equations. The political unit had already thrown its weight behind Manohar, making him a front-runner for the post.

However, it is learnt the meeting with Shah did not take place. Another Srinivasan loyalist said it had "effectively dented any hopes" of mounting a fight against the Manohar-Anurag Thakur alliance in the elections.

Srinivasan fired a legal salvo at BCCI secretary Thakur, though, moving the Supreme Court against him on charges of perjury. The BCCI meanwhile is seeking the apex court's opinion on whether Srinivasan can attend its meetings after his presence had caused the working committee meeting on August 28 to be adjourned. Both these cases are scheduled to be heard by the court on Monday.