Kathmandu, May 11 : Former BCCI president Shashank Manohar has been elected unopposed as the first independent chairman of the ICC. He will serve a two-year term - an unpaid position - beginning with immediate effect.

Manohar's election has come two days after he quit as BCCI president, a move that made him eligible to contest for the post under the new ICC regulation that its chairman must not hold positions in any national board. Manohar, however, had said his resignation had not been influenced by the upcoming ICC election.

"According to the election process, ICC directors were each allowed to nominate one candidate, who had to be either a present or past ICC director," the ICC said on Thursday. "Nominees with the support of two or more Full Member directors would have been eligible to contest the election, which was scheduled to have been concluded by May 23.

"However, given that Mr Manohar was the sole nominee for the position and the Board has now unanimously supported his appointment, the independent Audit Committee Chairman, Mr Adnan Zaidi, who has been overseeing the election process, has declared the process complete, and Mr Manohar the successful candidate."

Manohar, a prominent Indian lawyer, has served two terms as BCCI president - from 2008 to 20011, and from October 2015 to May 2016, when he succeeded Jagmohan Dalimya who died while holding office. During his second term, Manohar had also served as ICC chairman by virtue of being the Indian board's nominee to the ICC. By resigning as BCCI president on Tuesday, Manohar had given up his ICC chairmanship, only to be re-elected as the first independent chairman two days later.