MUMBAI, Sept 27: Nagpur lawyer Shashank Manohar on Saturday took over as the new president of the Indian cricket board (BCCI), succeeding Sharad Pawar in a smooth transition of power that also saw N Srinivasan becoming the BCCI secretary at the 79th AGM of the apex cricket body in the country.

Manohar, who was chosen to succeed Pawar at the last AGM and served as its president-elect, was one of the five vice-presidents under Pawar, whose three-year term ended today.

Former Test and Mumbai pacer Abey Kuruvilla became the new chairman of the junior selection panel following the refusal of another Mumbai ex-Test player, opener Lalchand Rajput, to accept the job.

Sanjeev Sharma, chairman of the outgoing junior selection panel, remained a member of the five-man panel along with Sanjay Desai, Rajesh Borah, Rajinder Singh Hans with Sanjay Jagdale, who became the new joint secretary, as its convener.

Mahendra Pandove, who was the joint secretary under Pawar, became the new treasurer.

In other key changes effected, Krishnamachari Srikkanth, the former Test and ODI opener who also captained India on the 1989 tour of Pakistan, was appointed as the chief selector of the first-ever paid panel replacing Dilip Vengsarkar.

His co-selectors will be Yashpal Sharma, Raja Venkat, Surendra Bhave and Narendra Hirwani.

The five vice-presidents elected unopposed like the other office bearers were: Arun Jaitley, N Shivlal Yadav, Aridam Ganguly, Chirayu Amin and Lalit Modi.

Pawar, who is now the vice-president and president-elect of the International Cricket Council (ICC), will continue to have connections with the BCCI not only as the president of the Mumbai Cricket Association (MCA), but also as the chairman of its important marketing sub-committee.

Rajeev Shukla, one of the vice-presidents during Pawar’s reign, was elected as the new chairman of the finance committee while Niranjan Shah was appointed vice-chairman of the Indian Premier League headed by Modi.

Manohar, addressing the media after becoming the board’s new chief, said that the working committee had only decided that a player should have played his last international match ten years ago to become eligible to be appointed on the senior selection panel.

“What has appeared in the media is wrong as we went through the minutes of the meeting and found that this was the criteria to be adopted. There was no mention of retirement in the minutes,” said Manohar who will turn 51 on Monday.

“The selectors’ appointment is for one year and they can remain selectors if re-appointed for not more than four years,” Manohar elaborated.

Manohar also revealed that a court case against former BCCI chief Jagmohan Dalmiya, who attended the AGM as the president of the Cricket Association of Bengal, has been filed in Mumbai on Sept 23 for recovery of Rs 47 crore that he is alleged to have misappropriated from the PILCOM World Cup accounts of 1996.

“The suit has been filed in Mumbai on Sept 23. It has not yet come up for hearing. The accounts were passed unanimously and you can draw your own conclusion,” Manohar said.

It was also decided to celebrate the Platinum Jubilee of the first Test played on Indian soil, against England at the Bombay Gymkhana in December 1933, on Dec 17.

It was also approved that the board would set up a sports medicine centre to help cricketers and other sports persons and that cricketers who played in the Ranji Trophy in the 2007-08 season would receive Rs37,000 per match, Manohar said.—Agencies