New BCCI President Shashank Manohar announces clean-up, Will a manohar kahani begin?

Shashank Manohar was on Sunday elected unopposed as the Board of Control for Cricket in India ( BCCI) president for a second time after a gap of four years and vowed to clean up the mess in the Board by announcing a slew of reforms to restore the credibility of the game.

The 58-year-old, who began his second stint as president after being elected to the post at the Special General Body (SGM) meeting, said his top priority is to restore the battered image of the Board and sought two months' time to put the house in order. The reforms announced by Manohar included the appointment of an ombudsman to deal with contentious issues like conflict of interest.

Laying down his roadmap for the Board, Manohar also announced several other important decisions which included cen- tral contracts of women cricketers, com- mon auditor to monitor expenses of all the state units and putting BCCI's balance sheet on the website to promote transparency.

Manohar, who was elected unopposed, said he also wants to have discussions with central government authorities to find out whether an investigating agency can be attached to the BCCI.

The move has been planned as the BCCI does not have investigating powers on matters of corruption. "BCCI has become a huge brand due to the love of the fans and the cricket loving population of this country.

Confidence of the fans has been shaken due to certain unpleasant things that have happened. It is the duty of all the representatives of the Board to bring the Board back to its original reputation," Manohar said after his election. "I am asking you to give me two months' time, I have two years in office," he added.

Among the reforms that Manohar plans to implement, the appointment of Ethics Officer is top-most on his agenda. "BCCI had formed regulation for players, coaches and staff. We are planning to have an Ombudsman or an Ethics Officer independent of the Board who can look into the com-plaints regarding Conflict of Interest.
"Secondly, we need to lay down the norms and measures to prevent corruption in the games. We will have more programmes to educate players," he said.

While the BCCI finance committee had already passed a resolution of having women cricketers under central contracts system, Manohar reiterated the BCCI's position on the issue. "The BCCI will have central contracts for women cricketers. This will encourage more and more women to take up the sport in future."

"I will discuss this with our secretary ( Anurag Thakur) as to whether we can have discussions with the Central Government in order to find out whether we can have a tie-up with investigative agencies as BCCI does not have investigative powers. This will help restore the faith of the fans in the game," Manohar said.

On monitoring state units' expenses, Manohar said: I would like to have a system where Board appoints an auditor independent of state associations. Once their accounts are audited, they would get full money. "