The news that shook the cricketing world on Monday was sacking of BCCI president Anurag Thakur from his post by the Supreme Court of India. Ajay Shirke, the honorary secretary of the board was also shown the door by the apex court, leaving BCCI handicapped and in a dire situation to deal with.
The verdict of the court came after Thakur was warned of perjury, as current ICC chairman and former BCCI boss Shashank Manohar revealed in public about Anurag seeking ICC interference into the Lodha Panel matter, which counts for a criminal offence and a jail term for around seven years too.
A three-member Lodha Panel, who were constituted by the Supreme Court to bring changes in the functioning of BCCI on recommendations of Justice Mukul Mudgal, which were supposed to be implemented by the board to accept the due date, which intentionally or unintentionally wasn’t undertaken by the board. Hence they had to suffer such a punishment.
Of the many recommendations suggested by the Lodha Panel, no one above the age of 70 years holding a post in the board was one, in order to part ways with any form of conflict of interest, which counts of not holding more than one position in BCCI at a time.
Supreme Court, after bringing BCCI to their knees asked Fali Nariman to be a member of an eminent panel of personalities, to choose an interim president of the board in the meanwhile. However, Fali refused to take on the responsibility saying, ‘he represented BCCI in 2009 as a lawyer and would want to avoid any conflict of interest’. The apex court then replaced him with a senior advocate Anil Divan, who will now make a call on a selection of the temporary boss of BCCI by January 19.
As the post of the chief in BCCI is vacant for now, Sportzwiki looks at the five contenders who could replace Anurag Thakur as the president of the board.