ICC Chairman says Thakur wanted letter against government interference

According to ICC Chairman Shashank Manohar, in August BCCI President Anurag Thakur asked for a letter stating that the appointment of a CAG would amount to government interference – AFP

ESPNcricinfo: ICC Chairman Shashank Manohar has contradicted BCCI President Anurag Thakur’s claim in his affidavit to the Supreme Court that he did not ask the ICC for a letter stating that the Lodha Committee’s recommendation to have a member of the Comptroller and Auditor General’s office on the apex council of the BCCI amounted to government interference in the board.

In an email to the Lodha Committee on November 2, Manohar wrote that Thakur had asked him to issue a letter but he had refused to do so.

The matter was last heard in the Supreme Court on December 15 and the court said there was, on first impression, enough evidence for a charge of perjury against Thakur.

Manohar, in his email, said Thakur had made the request on August 6, at an ICC meeting also attended by ICC Directors Giles Clarke, David Peever and Imran Khawaja, as well as ICC CEO David Richardson and COO Iain Higgins.

“During the meeting Mr. Thakur pointed out to me that when I was the President of BCCI, a submission was advanced before the Supreme Court at my behest that the appointment of a nominee of the CAG on the Apex Council might amount to Governmental interference and would invoke an action of suspension from the ICC,” Manohar wrote. “He therefore requested me to issue a letter to that effect in my capacity as ICC Chairman.

“I declined to issue such a letter and explained to him that the said submission was advanced before the Supreme Court when the court was hearing the matter. However, on 18-7-2016 the SC delivered its judgement in the matter and rejected the submission that the appointment of a nominee of the CAG would amount to governmental interference.

“I therefore explained to Mr. Thakur that the issue having been decided by the Hon Supreme Court of India, which is the highest court of the country and whose judgement binds everybody, I cannot give him any such letter. All this transpired in the presence of the Directors I have named earlier and the CEO and COO of ICC.” The issue first arose on September 12, when India Today quoted Richardson as saying that Thakur had asked the game’s governing body for a letter that would support the BCCI’s stance against the Lodha Committee’s recommendations: the ICC does not permit government interference in the running of its Full Member boards.