Going by the looks of it, the BCCI has launched an urgent operation to find N Srinivasan’s successor. This is significant because the officials are not willing to wait until Thursday’s Supreme Court order. Does it mean they were waiting for this opportunity? Their promptness suggests the answer is yes.
Despite showing solidarity — Srinivasan was unanimously reelected president at the annual general meeting last September — they were actually against him, but lacked the guts or wherewithal to oppose him. The apex court’s observation that Srinivasan should quit is actually something that they wanted to say, but could not, for whatever reason.
So instead of rallying behind him or showing any sign of moral support, the officials have started the process of electing a new president. Four of the five vice-presidents have said Srinivasan should step down and if unconfirmed reports are to be believed, those who can call the shots now have gone into a huddle to decide future course of action.
This leads to the question, why did they not oppose Srinivasan earlier? The answer is, despite all that they had against him, the board members did not have a leader who would come out in the open. All the former board presidents chose to remain inactive and the wannabes refused to initiate action. Now that the Supreme Court has done the job that they could not, they are not wasting any time to jump into action. So the next question is, what will they do now? Going by the constitution of the board, “the secretary shall within 15 days convene a special general body meeting to elect the president who shall be nominated by at least one full member from the zone.”
BCCI member and former treasurer Ajay Shirke, who had stepped down last year when the issue got murky saying he did not want to hold a post on moral grounds, said Srinivasan should step down. “The situation is sad as far as the BCCI concerned. Now that the Supreme Court has made such a strong observation, Srinivasan should step down and if that happens, the board should start looking for a new president.”
And this brings us to the next question, who will be the next president? This can’t be answered now and officially or otherwise, the search can gather momentum only after Thursday. Even then, a few names are doing the rounds. While Lalit Modi has suggested former president Shashank Manohar should be the man because “he has the experience”, one lobby has proposed the name of Jagmohan Dalmiya. Things may change, but it should be noted that Manohar had said he did not want to take up the post he vacated in 2011. As for Dalmiya, who refused to say anything, it will be unwise to predict anything.
So what next? One must wait till Thursday and assume that things are heading towards a special general body meeting. Only then will the name of the next president emerge. Till then, the point to note is, all those who were apparently with Srinivasan till a day back have not wasted a second to look for his successor. With that, a new chapter in BCCI history is about to unfold which promises fresh drama, fresh intrigue.
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Flashback
With the supreme court coming down heavily on Srinivasan, we take a look at how the Meiyappan saga unfolded & the manner in which the BCCI’s internal probe panel cleared him.