With Shashank Manohar gone, one of these men is most likely to run Indian cricket now

Well, that was quick.

After just over seven months in charge, Shashank Manohar is no longer the president of the Board of Control for Cricket in India. And the manner of his exit was much like the manner of his appointment, slightly surprising but not entirely unexpected.

When the previous president Jagmohan Dalmiya died on September 20, Manohar was nowhere in the picture to succeed him. But as the days passed, he went from an unlikely candidate to being the frontrunner. At the Special General Meeting held on October 4, he was elected unopposed as president. A month later, he also replaced Narayanswami Srinivasan to become the chairman of world cricket’s governing body, the International Cricket Council.

Talking tough

Manohar talked tough and promised to clean up the state of affairs within the Indian cricket body, reeling as it was from the repercussions of the 2013 spot-fixing scandal that had felled Srinivasan. And to a certain extent he did walk the talk – under his presidency, a definite policy on avoiding conflict of interest was laid down, an ombudsman was appointed while the BCCI’s financial dealings were made more transparent by putting up the balance sheets and the constitution on the official website.

Unfortunately for Manohar, the Justice Lodha committee, which had been appointed by the Supreme Court to clean up the BCCI’s affairs, did not think much of his reforms. In their report published in January, they called Manohar’s reforms a “step in the right direction”, but hardly “comprehensive and substantive”. They went a step further and observed that “the need of the hour was not cosmetic but fundamental change”.

An eye towards the bigger stage?

Perhaps Manohar had had enough. With the Supreme Court looking determined to ensure that the Lodha Committee’s recommendations were implemented despite the BCCI’s opposition, Manohar put in his resignation both from the post of BCCI president as well as the chairman of the International Cricket Council on Tuesday.

Exactly two days later, he was appointed the first independent chairman of the ICC. Under new regulations laid down by the world cricket governing body in April, its next chairman needed to be independent and not attached to any cricket body. Manohar was a front-runner, but he had to quit the BCCI first. His appointment as ICC chairman also added fuel to reports that he was eyeing a bigger stage.

But the veteran lawyer disputed that claim. In an interview to the Times of India during which he was asked if had sacrificed the BCCI presidency, he shot back by pointing out that it was under his watch that the ICC had decided to move to an independent chairman. “I could have continued to be the BCCI president as well as ICC chairman and not pushed for a change in the global body to have an independent head,” he noted.

Whatever his motivation for quitting the BCCI top post, speculation has already started about who will succeed him. Nothing has been confirmed for now but here are some of the names being thrown around.

Anurag Thakur

Young, suave and articulate – current BCCI secretary Anurag Thakur has many things going for him and has emerged as the frontrunner to succeed Manohar. He is both a Member of Parliament of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party and the president of the Himachal President Cricket Association. Since being elected the BCCI secretary in January 2015, he has increasingly becoming an important figure in Indian cricket.

But what makes him the most likely candidate to succeed Manohar is his age – 41. The Lodha panel had recommended that the age-limit for office bearers in the BCCI should be capped to 70 and while the cricket body is not in agreement to it, they would be wary of going against that rule and irking the judiciary further while the hearing on the case is still going on. In that respect, Thakur fits the bill perfectly for the BCCI.

However, the Lodha panel had also decried that politicians and government servants should be made ineligible for top posts in the BCCI. In that case if Thakur does become the president, he might have to temporarily put a stop to his political career.

Rajeev Shukla

Forever the nearly-man of Indian cricket administration, Rajeev Shukla has carved out a career in maneuvering his way through the tricky power corridors of the BCCI. To cite one example, Shukla is currently the chairman of the Indian Premier League, a post which he resigned in 2013 after the spot-fixing scandal. Like Thakur, he is also a Member of Parliament but from the opposition Congress party, which may be a factor that goes against him.

However, there is also the fact that Shukla is an experienced old head in the BCCI and knows how the system operates. It would be fanciful to write him off.

Sharad Pawar

It has now almost become tradition – whenever the post of the BCCI president becomes empty, the name of Maharashtra strongman Sharad Pawar invariably crops up. At 75, Pawar’s candidature will fall foul of the Lodha panel’s recommendations on imposing age-limits. But as president of the Mumbai Cricket Association, he still enjoys a lot of heft in the BCCI’s power circles and was one of the men instrumental in Shashank Manohar’s appointment as president last year.

Pawar has headed the BCCI earlier (between 2005 and 2008) and has also served as the president of the ICC from 2010 to 2012. Despite his age, there are murmurings that he could be considered as a consensus candidate.

Ajay Shirke and Gokaraju Gangaraju

The other two names that are being thrown around are those of Maharashtra Cricket Association president Ajay Shirke and current BCCI vice-president Gokaraju Gangaraju. Shirke, who is reportedly close to outgoing president Manohar, oversaw the cricket body’s legal battle against the Lodha committee in the Supreme Court.

Gangaraju is a BJP MP from Andhra Pradesh. He has climbed his way up the ranks and is currently the vice-president of the Andhra Cricket Association. At 67, age may not be on his side but he might stake a claim and the fact that he is a dark horse might help him.