Mumbai, Oct 4 (IANS): Shashank Manohar took over as the new president of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) on Sunday. At a Special General Meeting (SGM) of the board here earlier, he was the only candidate for the top post.
The BCCI chief's chair was lying vacant since September 20 when incumbent Jagmohan Dalmiya died in Kolkata. According to the BCCI's constitution, a notification for an SGM to nominate a successor has to be issued within 15 days of the incumbent's death.
Manohar, a lawyer by profession, had held the top post earlier too from 2008 to 2011. The 58-year-old lawyer-turned-administrator was elected for a full two-year term as all the six East Zone units unanimously proposed Manohar's candidature for the president's post.
It was East Zone's turn this time around to propose a name, and as Manohar was the lone canditate in the fray, he was elected for the second time.
Among the six proposers for Manohar was Dalmiya's son Avishek, who was representing the National Cricket Club (NCC) at the SGM.
The others who too proposed Manohar for the president's post were Sourav Ganguly from Bengal, Sourav Dasgupta from Tripura, Gautam Roy from Assam, Ashirbad Behera of Odisha and Sanjay Singh of the Jharkhand State Cricket Association (JSCA).
"Thank you all for your wishes. As you all know, BCCI is a brand and brand is created because of fans. Now it will be our duty to bring back the reputation of the board which was lost for quite sometime to normal position. I will continue to work on the issues Dalmiya had started working on. I will look to do my duty as best as possible," Manohar told reporters at a press conference after being elected the president.
"We have to work on a couple of issues regarding the board and bring back the reputation back as easy as possible. I need two months' time in which I will look into all the aspects ad get back to you all. I have just taken over as the president as I am looking forward to perform my duty well," Manohar said.
BCCI secretary Anurag Thakur congratulated Manohar on becoming the new board president.
"After the demise of Dalmiya we had to elect a president. And all six associations of the East Zone proposed the name of Manohar and he was elected unanimously," Thakur said.
"We have seen in his last tenure how well he has worked and how well his work was appreciated specially his administration ship. With him as president, cricket in India will grow with every passing day," the BCCI secretary added.