'Enormous delight' with Manohar's words - CSA

Cricket South Africa has expressed "enormous delight" at ICC chairman Shashank Manohar's comments hitting out at the Big Three's "bullying", while Sri Lanka Cricket has also shown support to Manohar by calling him a "sensible man". Manohar had said that he did not approve the constitutional revamp at the ICC instigated by the three most powerful boards - the BCCI, ECB and CA - last year.

Hope and excitement, albeit of the guarded kind, is what most of the boards outside the Big Three have expressed since Manohar made a bold opening statement in his first outing as ICC chairman. "I don't agree with the three major countries bullying the ICC," Manohar had said on the revamp, which ensured the representatives of BCCI, ECB and CA would be part of an all decision-making process, with the three boards also standing to earn the highest percentage of the money accrued through the reformulated revenue model of the ICC.

This was the second time in less than two months Manohar had made a blunt assessment. On October 4, immediately upon taking over as BCCI president, Manohar launched a radical clean-up exercise which has since shaken the Indian establishment.

"I would be less than truthful if I did not express enormous delight at Mr Manohar's comments," Haroon Lorgat, CSA's chief executive, said. "It is indeed refreshing to have read these comments and knowing the man, I am confident that he will change the ICC structures to make it a better place so that all ICC Members and international cricket can flourish."

CSA was one of the three Full Members along with PCB and SLC that had strong reservations against the revamp plan drawn by a working group comprising N Srinivasan, then ECB chairman Giles Clarke, and former CA chairman Wally Edwards. But after expressing initial discomfort in the draft proposal, CSA eventually supported the resolutions, with its president Chris Nenzani saying, "it is not a very perfect world."

It is no secret that Lorgat, formerly the ICC chief executive, shared a strained relationship with the Manohar's predecessor at both the ICC and the BCCI - Srinivasan. Lorgat was one of the few voices who challenged the BCCI's might at the ICC board meetings. Incidentally, during his tenure at the ICC, Lorgat had also come across Manohar, who was serving his first stint as BCCI president during which India co-hosted the World Cup in 2011.

Lorgat remembered Manohar as "a strong minded" and "principled" man, qualities that he noticed again recently when the CSA top brass met the BCCI president last week in his hometown in Nagpur. "He was as straightforward as when I knew him from years back," Lorgat said.

Although he was surprised at Manohar's move to blast the Big Three-lead revamp exercise, Lorgat said CSA had sensed renewed hopes after the new BCCI administration under Manohar and secretary Anurag Thakur took charge.

"I had no idea of what the thinking was among the new BCCI leaders, but once Mr Thakur had entered the fray, our optimism for change began to grow. Naturally we were living in hope that someday sanity and common sense would prevail. This has come through a lot quicker than we expected and that is undoubtedly good for ICC Members and the game of cricket," Lorgat said.

Asked if the ICC should take the opportunity to re-examine its organisational structure, Lorgat felt there was "much room for improvement at the ICC and good governance must prevail in the administration of a global federation."

Sidath Wettimuny, the chairman of the interim committee that governs SLC, said that he remained optimistic about Manohar: "Shashank has spoken as if he was looking from a more global perspective than a board perspective, which I think is the correct thing to do as an ICC president. It's good to hear. He strikes me as a sensible man."

Other SLC officials have also expressed support for Manohar's views, and welcomed the possibility of a renegotiation in the ICC structure. SLC is primarily interested in gaining a greater influence at the ICC.