BCCI president Sourav Ganguly is reportedly out of the race to become the next ICC chairman. In the recent past, several reports suggested that the former India skipper is the front-runner for the post as it emerged that Shashank Manohar would not stand for another term after his tenure ends with the ICC annual conference in July.
Sourav Ganguly was elected BCCI president last October, but his tenure technically ends in July after which he would need to undergo a three-year cooling-off period.
However, the legendary batsman is now out of the race, according to Pakistani news outlet TheNews The report mentioned that PCB chief Ehsan Mani has surprisingly emerged as a strong candidate to head the governing body of the game.
Sources close to Mani stated that pressure is mounting on Mani to accept the coveted role of ICC chairman from several of the top Test-playing nations. On the other hand, Sourav Ganguly is out of the race as several Test-playing nations are wary of “too much” Indian influence in world cricket. Mani is yet to accept the offer from various ICC member nations to contest the election.
“He accepted the role to become PCB chairman after being convinced by Prime Minister Imran Khan. He took the responsibility as he wanted to serve Pakistan cricket. He will have to leave PCB prematurely if he agrees to contest the election and is successful in the bid to become ICC Chairman,” a source stated.
“Many of the cricket board have been wary of the fact that India’s clout in the ICC has become way too big. That’s one of the biggest reasons why they are uniting against the BCCI and want to support Mani as a consensus candidate,” added the source.
