DUBAI: India's Shashank Manohar has been elected unopposed as the first independent chairman of the International Cricket Council (ICC), the game's governing body said on Thursday.

Under reforms Manohar himself initiated within the ICC, the new chairman must be an independent candidate with no formal links to any other country.

An administrator with a clean image, Manohar resigned as the chief of the powerful Indian cricket board (BCCI) on Tuesday and commenced his two-year term at ICC with immediate effect.