One would not have to look closely to realize that power is being shared and exchanged only between a select bunch of individuals who while retaining their power, have entrusted new ones with enormous responsibilities.
The Annual General Meeting (AGM) of the BCCI on Monday formally appointed Shashank Manohar as the BCCI president. But none of the appointments, including this one, came as any surprise. Manohar assumed the post as Sharad Pawar will continue in an advisory position while retaining his post as vice-president of the ICC. Manohar is apparently in collusion with Pawar and sees no conflict of interests in Pawar overseeing BCCI operations.
Kris Srikkanth was appointment the chairman of the selection committee. He will head the selectors committee comprising of Yashpal Sharma (North Zone), Raja Venkat (East), Surendra Bhave (West) and Narendra Hirwani (Central). N. Srinivasan has been appointed convenor of the selection panel. This has meant that Dilip Vengsarkar has been replaced by Srikkanth who will now fall under the new BCCI ruling for paid selectors; a point advocated by Vengsarkar but being implemented now. The selectors have now been appointed under a four year contract which will be subject to an annual review.
As stated earlier, power was only exchanging hands and not really interested in bringing in new members. This would translate into board secretary Niranjan Shah’s job going to N. Srinivasan while the former is reappointed as IPL vice-chairman. N. Srinivasan was earlier operating as the BCCI treasurer whose post now goes to M.P. Pandove who earlier the board’s joint secretary. In turn, the joint secretary’s job goes to Sanjay Jagdale, the former selector.
Pawar will still be heading the marketing committee that will include Lalit Modi, who in addition to leading the IPL and Champions Twenty20 League, will also be responsible for BCCI’s influential fixtures committee which basically translates into deciding upon tour dates and itineraries.
The timing could be questioned but not only are a few of the players interchanging positions; it happens in the boardroom as well.
