Anurag Thakur frontrunner to be BCCI president

BCCI secretary Anurag Thakur is the frontrunner to become president of the Indian board after Shashank Manohar stepped down on Tuesday. Thakur has been tight-lipped about his next move, but senior BCCI office-bearers believe he is set to take over for the remainder of Manohar's tenure, until September 2017.

"There is no other strong candidate to run the BCCI," a senior official from one of the East Zone associations said. According to the board's constitution, Thakur, as BCCI secretary, has to convene a special general body meeting within two weeks to appoint the next president. If he plans to contest for the position, he has to quit as secretary.

Whispers of Manohar's resignation had begun when the ICC announced that candidates for the post of chairman had to be independent of its Full Member boards. The Manohar camp, without saying he would quit the BCCI, blamed the ongoing tussle with the Supreme Court, which has been deliberating how the board could implement the radical reforms proposed by the Lodha committee in January.

The rival camp, comprising supporters of former BCCI president N Srinivasan, called Manohar's decision to step down as premeditated and selfish. "This was the clear the day they decided amongst themselves to change things and planned to reduce India's share [of the ICC revenues]. It was clear he was angling for this [ICC chairmanship]," a Srinivasan supporter said. "The BCCI became a pawn. The whole sequence of things is disappointing."

Over the past decade, the BCCI president had been chosen by a rotational system, where each of the five zones was given a turn to nominate their candidate. The candidatures of Manohar and his predecessor Jagmohan Dalmiya were put forward by the East Zone. But it is unclear if they have the right to nominate the next president, especially since the Lodha committee had proposed to scrap the zonal rotation system to elect the president.

"There seems to be no rational basis for the Presidency to be rotated as per Zones, which has the effect of forsaking merit. A person who has the support of as few as two or three members in his Zone may end up as the President, if it is the turn of that Zone for election of President," the Lodha committee said in its report. "Recent amendments to the rules have permitted individuals who are not even from the zone in question to be nominated to the post. For the same reason, the Vice-Presidents who are elected from each of the five zones seem to be merely ornamental without any specific functions."

In case the zonal system is discarded, one of the BCCI's affiliated associations would have to propose a nominee and if another member seconds that, the nominee would become BCCI president. If there is more than one name put forward, an election would be required.

"Nothing [has been discussed] so far," a BCCI vice-president said. "It depends on how soon they would like to fill the gap - whether they will go through the election process or nomination [in the case of a unanimous candidate]. If there are elections, there are definitely a couple of people [who are possible candidates]. Our IPL chairman is also aspiring [to be president]."

An East Zone official said IPL chairman Rajiv Shukla may be a better option as secretary. Most of the officials ESPNcricinfo contacted admitted it was still too early to predict who will become the next BCCI president.