ICC chairman opposes council dominated by sport's powers

International Cricket Council chairman Shashank Manohar said he is not in favor of the world cricketing body being dominated by the sport's heavyweights in yet another indication he'd like to shake up the power structure of the council to make it more equitable, according to a report published on Sunday.

The ICC approved changes last year under then-chairman Narayanaswamy Srinivasan that gave more power to the so-called "Big Three" - India, England and Australia - by handing them permanent seats on the council's executive committee.

But Manohar, who replaced Srinivasan as ICC chairman after taking over as the president of the Board of Control for Cricket in India this year, told The Week magazine in an interview that he does not endorse the system, saying that "all members are equal in an organization."

"I'm opposed to the idea of 'Big Three,'" he said. "This concept cannot be there in an organization. No one can be 'Big One,' 'Big Two' or 'Big Three.”

Manohar also told The Hindu newspaper on Thursday that he was not in favor of the new revenue-sharing formula that gave more money to India, England and Australia, and that he believed the three powers were “bullying” the ICC.

Manohar, a Nagpur-based lawyer, has made many changes to the Indian cricket board in recent weeks in a bid to improve its reputation after the Indian Premier League corruption and spot-fixing scandal of 2013.

Gurunath Meiyappan, Srinivasan’s son-in-law and a Chennai Super Kings official, and Raj Kundra, co-owner of the Rajasthan Royals, were banned for life by India’s Supreme Court after contacting illegal bookmakers during the 2013 IPL, and the two teams also received two-year suspensions. Among the steps Manohar has taken to clean up Indian cricket has been the introduction of a conflict of interest clause that bars players and officials from holding multiple posts in the cricket board and the formation of an ombudsman to handle conflict of interest cases when they do arise.