Manohar tipped to take over from Pawar as president-elect of BCCI

Mumbai, Sep 27 (UNI) Shashank Manohar, a vice president from the Central Zone is tipped to succeed Sharad Pawar as the new President of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) from incumbent Sharad Pawar who is set to lay down office in June next year, at the 79th Annual General Meeting of the BCCI here tomorrow.

The BCCI is to embark on a newly charted course and choose their next President to take over from Pawar, who is to quit the post ahead of the BCCI's AGM in September 2008 because of his nomination as the president-elect of the International Cricket Council.

Manohar, a leading lawyer from Nagpur and representing the Vidarbha Cricket Association, is ''one hundred per cent certain to be elected unopposed as the president-in-waiting of the Board when the deadline for filing nominations ends today'', said a top BCCI source.

Manohar, a very influential man in the BCCI, who is very close to Pawar, is thus all set to become the first President-elect of the apex cricket body of the country.

The term of the 29th President will be for two years followed by another one-year term if he's elected again at the end of the fixed term.

The BCCI had introduced the new concept of President-elect through a special annual general meeting earlier this year and the proposal was passed unanimously.

Another major item on the agenda of the meeting is the nomination of a new Chairman for the Bangalore-based National Cricket Academy in place of Ajay Shirke, who was appointed as the interim head when the Board sacked Kapil Dev from the post after the former India captain joined the rebel Indian Cricket League.

UNI