N Srinivasan removal as ICC chairman: Chronicle of an end foretold

The AGM decided to remove Srinivasan as the ICC chairman, a development that The Indian Express exclusively reported a few days ago. (Source: Express File)

This is the end of an era in cricket administration. However, there’s no surprise in this ouster: N Srinivasan had been living on borrowed time ever since Shashank Manohar’s appointment as the BCCI president on October 4. The axe eventually fell on Monday, during the cricket board’s 86th Annual General Meeting (AGM) in Mumbai.

The AGM decided to remove Srinivasan as the ICC chairman, a development that The Indian Express exclusively reported a few days ago. Manohar will be the BCCI’s representative at the world body and will occupy the top seat till June 2016. Mumbai Cricket Association chairman Sharad Pawar has been nominated as the second representative who will attend the ICC meetings if Manohar is unavailable.

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To be honest, Srinivasan’s big fall has had a touch of irony. In June last year, he was appointed the ICC chairman as the new post was created following the structural overhaul. An oligarchy has been formed as Srinivasan, along with Cricket Australia’s Wally Edwards and England and Wales Cricket Board’s Giles Clarke, masterminded the change.

The world sniggered at the transformation but Indian cricket reaped the benefits. The BCCI became a cricketing behemoth following an increase in its revenue distribution to 23 per cent. Six months down the line, the Supreme Court declared the Tamil Nadu strongman unfit to contest in the BCCI polls until his conflict of interest issue was resolved. It was a setback, but he still had the ICC chairmanship to cling on to. Today’s decision made him a virtual non-entity in Indian and world cricket.

After assuming office Manohar had promised to keep the politics of vendetta at arm’s length. But the BCCI setup doesn’t allow any room for the vanquished. The late Jagmohan Dalmiya was humiliated after he lost elections in 2005. Manohar had been made peripheral after he left the board in 2011.

A sudden turn of events has brought him back to the hot seat and he chose to follow the trend. “Members unanimously approved conflict of interest issue and amendments,” he said after the AGM. About 1,200 kilometres away in Chennai, Srinivasan must have taken it with a pinch of salt. Surviving on the home front appears to be his next challenge as according to sources, efforts will now be made to throw him out of the Tamil Nadu Cricket Association as well.

The AGM agreed in principle to implement the guidelines related to conflict of interest issues. There are strict dos and don’ts and everyone related to the BCCI, and its affiliated units, comes in the loop.

Srinivasan is claimed to have given up his stake in Chennai Super Kings but the Supreme Court-appointed Lodha committee will take a final call on the issue. The verdict is due by November end but paradise has already been lost. In the end, Srinivasan fell prey to his dogma and denial.