From Trade Wars To Trade Ties

Even with Thakur serving as the BCCI secretary, plans were already in place to award the women cricketers central contracts...

- Sreelata S. Yellamrazu

Any change of regime at the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) unfailingly brings with it anticipation and expectations about the possible direction cricket could head in the near future with India monopolizing the cricket trade wars and dictating dominant trends. But even by those expectations, few would have expected that Anurag Thakur’s first order of business would include something that would actually usher a new era for cricket, on the field!

When Shashank Manohar opted to retain his place at the ICC as the ICC Chairman, albeit through a reelection process which was essentially a unanimous vote, there was great consternation that with the decks having been cleared for Anurag Thakur’s elevation to the BCCI Presidency, there would be more controversy to court. However, interestingly the words coming out of the BCCI have had more to do with cricket than with opposing the R.M. Lodha Committee report.

With the Indian cricket team set to bring in a rather long cricket season spanning thirteen home Tests and four away in the West Indies, the focus naturally has been not only on Virat Kohli as India’s Test captain but also, on the Indian coach’s post vacated by Ravi Shastri who served in the interim till the conclusion of the ICC World Twenty 20 2016. However, the prospect of narrowing down the most eligible candidate for apparently the hottest property in the Indian dressing room has not been Thakur’s only primary agenda.