Manohar steps down as BCCI president

Shashank Manohar has resigned as BCCI president in the lead up to the elections for ICC chairman, a post that must now be contested by independent candidates not linked to any country's board. Manohar will not be able to continue as ICC chairman either until the elections because the present post goes to the BCCI nominee to the ICC, which is Manohar.

"I hereby tender my resignation with immediate effect from the post of President of Board of Control for Cricket in India," Manohar said in a letter to BCCI secretary Anurag Thakur. "I also resign with immediate effect as the representative of BCCI on the International Cricket Council, as also the Asian Cricket Council on which I was nominated by the General Body of BCCI."

Thakur confirmed to ANI that Manohar had stepped down because of the upcoming ICC election, for which the nomination process began on May 8. The ICC had announced in February that its new chairman would be independent and no longer be able to hold a position with their home board, like Manohar and his predecessor N Srinivasan had done.

The ICC election will be overseen by the body's independent audit committee chairman and all present and past ICC directors will be eligible to contest. Candidates can only be nominated by a fellow ICC director and a director can make only one nomination. Any nominee with the support of at least two Full Member directors will be put forward as a candidate for chairman.

Manohar had been elected BCCI president in October 2015 - his second term - after the death of Jagmohan Dalmiya. According to the BCCI constitution, in the case of the president resigning, the secretary will have to call a special general body meeting with two weeks notice to decide on the way forward.

Manohar's resignation came amid the Indian board's legal troubles with the country's Supreme Court in the wake of the Lodha Committee's recommendations to restructure the organisation.