The man who didn’t have a passport until last year and still doesn’t carry a cell phone is all set to become president of the richest and most influential cricket board in the world. The tight-lipped and media unfriendly Shashank Manohar, who was the outgoing president Sharad Pawar’s backroom boy since his early days in BCCI, will have the spotlight on him as he takes over the reigns of Indian cricket at the AGM on Saturday.

It’s a case of the 67-year-old political heavy weight being replaced by the 51-year-old advocate who was the legal brain behind Pawar’s knock-out blow to former BCCI president Jagmohan Dalmiya in that acrimonious AGM three years back. Manohar, who specialises in criminal law, is the son of Maharashtra’s former advocate general VR Manohar. The Manohar family’s legal firm has represented clients such as Sanjay Dutt.

The family has also had a close connection with cricket and its officialdom. Shashank represented Nagpur University as an opener and a part-time offie and took over the Vidarbha Cricket Association as president like his father VR Manohar. Shashank’s younger brother and son, both leading lawyers, have played first-class cricket.

Cricket politics is also not new for the family. About 18 years back, when the late Madhavrao Scindia won a BCCI election by just one vote against Dalmiya, VR Manohar had lost the post of the vice-president by one vote.

Ask the father about this and he laughs. “You know board elections are worse than Parliament elections. But it’s quite pleasing to know that things are smooth this time,” he says. “Shashank is very stubborn and at times he is also seen as a hardliner. But ultimately this is because he is passionate about the game and doesn’t like it when things go wrong.”

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