New Delhi: BJP MP and BCCI secretary Anurag Thakur is the frontrunner to become president of the cricketing body after Shashank Manohar stepped down on Tuesday.
News agency PTI, however, reported that Thakur has been tight-lipped about his next move, but senior BCCI office-bearers believe he is set to take over for the remainder of Manohar's tenure, until September 2017.
"There is no other strong candidate to run the BCCI," a senior official from one of the East Zone associations told ESPN.
IPL chairman Rajeev Shukla is also in the running along with Maharashtra CA president and business magnate Ajay Shirke.
According to the board's constitution, a Special General Meeting (SGM) has to be convened within 15 days, apprising the members of the current situation. If Thakur plans to contest for the position, he has to quit as secretary.
Yesterday, Manohar also resigned from ICC chairman's post as he was a BCCI representative at the apex body and resignation in country's board effectively means that he does not stay as ICC's chairman. His tenure was supposed to end in June, 2016, after which he was set to take over as the first independent chairman of ICC.
The 58-year-old Manohar will not be a representative of any country's cricket board as per the changes recommended by ICC board and will need two independent members of the ICC Board to recommend his name.
