Dubai: Shashank Manohar, chairman of International Cricket Council (ICC), stepped down after completing two terms of two years each on Wednesday as Imran Khwaja, his Deputy Chairman, will assume the responsibilities till his successor is named. The Board of Directors met over a video conference to approve the decision.
The process for the election of the chairman, which has been under discussion for a while in the Council, is expected to be approved by the ICC Board within next week.
Khwaja, former President of Singapore Cricket Association and chairman of associate member committee, said in a statement: “Everyone on the ICC Board extends their wholehearted thanks to Shashank for the commitment he has shown to our sport. There is no doubt that cricket owes Shashank a debt of gratitude for all he has done for the sport. He has left cricket and the ICC in a better place than he found it.”
ICC Chief Executive Manu Sawhney said: “On behalf of the ICC Board and staff and the whole cricket family, I would like to thank Shashank for his leadership and everything he has done for the sport as ICC Chairman. We wish him and his family all the very best for the future.”
Manohar, a former President of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) and a lawyer by profession, first became chairman in 2015 after his predecessor N. Srinivasan was removed following an Indian Premier League spot-fixing scandal. Manohar resigned from the post in 2017, only to be persuaded by the ICC board to serve another another term - and Khwaja is believed to have played a key role in convincing him to stay on.
Announcing his decision not to continue in the post last year itself, Manohar had said: “I have been the chairman for nearly five years. I am very clear, I do not want to continue from June 2020.’’
It’s quite a rich legacy being left by Manohar, who played a big role in reinstating the image of ICC as a global body and thwarted previous attempts of the ‘Big three’ of India, England and Australia taking a bigger grip over running of the sport.
