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He doesn’t use a mobile phone
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He doesn’t indulge in corruption and doesn’t allow others to do it.
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He adheres to the rules and regulations and insists that others too must
follow them strictly.
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He doesn’t avail himself of a single rupee, direct or indirect, while
working for the organisation he represents i.e. not even expenses for travel or
car…..and not even his honorarium.
- In spite of being born with a silver spoon in the mouth and in spite of
being a highly reputed lawyer occupying a dignified position he can find time
to spend with his friends at a roadside tea stall also.
- Once he feels convinced of any idea, he doesn’t yield to any external
pressure whatsoever.
In short, he has the courage of
his convictions and lives life on his own terms. He doesn’t bother about what
the world thinks of him.
He turns his hair back, has a
slightly plump figure and a unique style of speaking by parting his upper lip.
He displays a defiant, ruthless attitude towards anybody who attempts to
dominate him. The name of this man is Shashank Manohar.
- He has become the president of the Indian Cricket Control Board, known
to be one of the richest bodies in the world, for the second time. He didn’t
even possess a passport till the time he became the president of this
organisation for the first time!
I could withstand the taxing
nature of news compilation from judiciary at the beginning of the 1980s, thanks
to the co-operation extended by two close friends from lawyers’ fraternity viz.
Avinash Gupta and Subodh Dharmadhikari (who have now become names to reckon
with). I made several new friends in the Bar because of their close company. One
of them was Shashank Manohar. Shashank was younger than all three of us, but
right since the beginning he started dealing with me as jovially as he dealt
with the other two. Right from our first handshake he too started addressing me
as ‘Pravya’, following the example of Avinash and Subodh. This dashing boldness
which often appears to be outright bluntness is a distinct tradition of the
Manohar family.
V.R. Manohar holds the exemplary
status among the prominent names, such as Sorabji, Jethmalani, Rajendrasingh
etc. associated with the contemporary legal fraternity who have achieved an
awe-inspiring position in their profession by leaving an indelible imprint of
their calibre. His fathomless memory and defiant adherence to principles have
accorded him a legendary identity. No wonder, the Manohars are one of the
stalwarts of Nagpur city. It must be mentioned that in spite of being affluent and
highly educated, the Manohars are highly sophisticated family prominent in the
realm of culture. Yet it is also known for its extremely down-to-earth approach
of dealing with people. Outspokenness is both a striking characteristic and a
distinct essence of this family. At the same time, it is a modest family that
actively offers support to all types of activities pertaining to art, sports,
literature and music in Nagpur and yet it can scarcely be said that it hankers after
limelight. Avoiding headlines or craving for attention is a yardstick of this
family across two generations. Like his father, Shashank has been batting with
dash and verve on both the fronts viz. his profession of being a lawyer and
also playing cricket. His younger brother Sunil too has stepped into his
father’s shoes by being a rising star on the horizon of their family
profession. He had been appointed as the Attorney General of the state but he
opted to resign from that glamorous office. ‘Quit the place your conscience
doesn’t permit you to occupy’ is a pledge written in the preamble of the
constitution of the Manohar family. (Now Shrihari Ane has succeeded him). V.R.
Manohar’s daughter too is a Justice of the Bombay High Court.
At one point of time I was active
in the politics of the High Court Bar Association almost as if I was a member
of it. As a result, I was in day-to-day contact with Shashank. During my stay
at Nagpur we were putting up at the ground floor premises of a small bungalow
apartment in the cosy locality of Vasant Nagar. After crossing the courtyard of
that small bungalow there is a street adjacent to which is the Cricket ground
of Dhanavate College in Nagpur. After his cricketing years were over Shashank
became a well-established lawyer and started batting for the Viderbha Cricket
Association and eventually landed on the battlefield of cricket politics of
this country. Even today Shashank Manohar comes to the playground to pursue his
hobby of being a pace bowler, perhaps to quench his thirst for making a fierce
attack on his opponent. I have nostalgic memories of our meetings on this
playground.
Abiding by this intimate
friendship I would like to state that ‘Perfect in his Work and Straightforward
in his Behaviour’ is a resolute characteristic of Shashank. An excellent
example of this is the superb stadium of international standard built by
the Viderbha Cricket Association at
Jamtha. It is a living example of the perfectionist and fastidious approach,
Shashank is outstandingly known for. It is difficult to believe, especially
during the modern times infected by the epidemic of vested interests and
corrupt practices, that a massive project of this size that meets all the
international paradigms can be constructed at such an unbelievably low cost and
yet on schedule. No wonder, this stadium is but a dazzling example of a project
soaring high in an exceptional manner sharply contradicting the prevailing
notions of filling coffers first before fuelling inspiring designs of
impressive architecture. The jaws of several Australian and West Indian
cricketers fell when they first stepped into this stadium. Frankly speaking, it
would have been easily possible to pilfer tens of crores of rupees while
constructing this stadium but it must be admitted that indulging in such
practices is indeed not in the blood of this noble family.
I must share one unforgettable
experience of Shashank when he became the president of BCCI for the first time.
BCCI approved the idea of allocating a substantial fund as a scholarship to the
promising stars of sports activities other than cricket. There were two
candidates competing in the race for winning this coveted scholarship from
among the list of players deemed worthy of it viz. Saina Nehwal, now renowned as
a ‘Shuttle-Queen’ and one another Maharashtrian-Marathi speaking sportswoman.
Of course, I was completely ignorant of all this. One day, my senior colleague
said to me, ‘Will Mr. Shashank Manohar do us a favour?’. I replied, ‘I will
try. Unless there is a genuine reason Shashank will not refuse me. That is not
in his nature!’. I communicated to Shashank that I would be making a personal
request to him soon. A few days later, the documents of the concerned
sportswoman were delivered to me. Uday Ranganath, my senior colleague who
belonged to the Sports beat of my newspaper, in turn delivered them to Mr.
Shashank Manohar.
Very soon, I received a phone
call from Shashank. He firmly said, ‘Pravya, I cannot do this for you’.
- With all the earnestness and sincerity at my command, I urged him to
consider my request: ‘Why? For the first time my boss has sought some help from
me, man’.
- Shashank replied, ‘Saina Nehwal is far superior, in terms of merit, in
comparison with the name of the other sportswoman being vouched for by your
boss and I will never spend my goodwill for someone else by setting aside
someone who truly deserves!’.
- ‘What will my boss say Shashank?’, I asked Shashank anxiously. Hearing
this, Shashank laughter uproariously and said, ‘Both, you and your boss, go to
hell!’.
Everybody is aware of what
history Saina Nehwal made after this incident.
Yet another happening, is in
fact, far more sensitive. ICC served a notice to one of my colleagues for
indulging in a seriously offensive behaviour. ICC sent a copy of the said
notice to him as well as to the management of the Indian Express group of
newspapers. This colleague of mine had directly attested the said notice by
obtaining the signature of the chief editor of the Mumbai edition of our
newspaper. I was unaware of anything in this matter. But the management of our
newspaper sent that notice to me for further action since I was not only his
‘Boss’ but also the ‘Reporting Authority’. This way, the trick played by the
said accused colleague of mine was exposed. The matter was very serious and my
colleague was on the brink of being fired from his job. There were tears in his
eyes when he met me but he was ignorant that even I had received that notice.
He begged before me that only Shashank Manohar or Sharad Pawar could rescue him
from this serious matter. Because I had campaigned aggressively against Sharad
Pawar receiving a coveted award equivalent to D.Litt. (proposed to be conferred
on him by an agricultural university), Sharad Pawar and I had not met each
other and verbal communication between us had stopped even after I had made attempts
to resume it a few times in the recent past.
So, I sought to speak with
Shashank Manohar about this. When I mentioned the name of this colleague, he
instantly said that he was expecting a call from me and revealed a
treasure-trove of information before me about this offender colleague of mine.
He had been captured in the prying eyes of a CCTV camera for accepting a paper
from a foreign sportsman and delivering it to a spectator. This was a very
serious matter. This incident which had happened in Nagpur had been captured by
the CCTV camera and communicated straight to the ICC headquarters in Dubai. My
colleague had been traced using the photograph attached with the application
sent for attestation and therefore the evidence against my colleague was
formidable.
When I shared this information
with that colleague of mine he told me that he had simply sought an autograph
of that sportsman on a piece of paper and delivered it to the spectator on
being requested by him. Several other issues got revealed through that
conversation with my colleague such as he had been given an opportunity to
defend himself before the said notice was served on him but he had not
mentioned all this to anybody since he had felt confident of being able to
handle this matter entirely on his own during the course of the said
investigation.
I sought to speak with Shashank
once again. He said, ‘Pravya, the matter has long ago gone beyond my ability
and jurisdiction to handle it. Instructions have been issued to the security
guards to arrest this journalist if he is found to be even roaming around
anywhere in the vicinity’. I said to Shashank that I wish to save my colleague from
being fired from his job by informing the management that my colleague had submitted
an unconditional apology and ICC had cancelled the further course of punitive
action against him after talking with the concerned authorities. He calmly
reacted by saying, ‘Do whatever you want!’ and refused to retract his decision
to invoke a punitive action. In reality, neither did I demand a letter of
apology from the said colleague of mine and managed to buy time by informing
the HR that I would send the said letter of apology later. Instinct told me
that this matter would die soon after the world cup tournament got over. Besides,
I had made up my mind already to step down from the office of the Chief Editor
of Nagpur edition of my newspaper which meant that I could not have been held
responsible for the failure of saving someone from losing his job.
Spicy stories of Shashank’s
defiant approach of managing affairs started circulating very fast when
Shashank was the president of the Viderbha Cricket Association. Certain
elements may have been hurt because of that but his image in the domain of
cricket at national level acquired the aura he deserves. There is no doubt at
all that it is this very image which proved to be useful for him to stake his
claim on the presidentship of BCCI for the second time, rather than the
whispermongers’ tales that he was ‘Pawar’s man’. This chair of the president of
BCCI fell vacant after the death Jagmohan Dalmia. I was appointed in Delhi when
Dalmia had first occupied that chair. At that time, majority of the Bengali,
Hindi and English newspapers were propagating the name of Shashank as an
eligible candidate for becoming the president because of his defiant and
incorruptible approach toward managing the affairs of BCCI. I felt proud of him
after reading these news items which were showering lavish praise on him
consistently for over a week. So, one day early morning I sought to dial his
phone number and expressed my admiration and pride toward him. He calmly
enquired as to what has happened so early in the morning that had induced me to
make a phone call and I informed him about the overwhelming praise appearing in
the print media about his proposed candidacy for contesting against Dalmia.
Anyone else would have felt flattered after hearing this but Shashank calmly
said to me, ‘I am not at all interested in becoming the president of BCCI. I
have already made it clear to the concerned authorities. I know they do not
approve of my defiant and straightforward approach. They are showering praise on
me only because they want to pull the rug from under Dalmia’s feet’.
Malpractices in IPL, Spot fixing
and blatant commercialisation of the game are some of the grave issues affecting
the health of cricket in India. Yet another controversial matter is the cricket
tournaments with Pakistan and I am eager to see how Shashank, who has a formidable
reputation for his ‘Bold and Straightforward Approach’, finds a way out of the
puzzling maze of this situation.
