For the first time in the history of the Indian Board of Cricket control, a cricketer is all set to don the role of the President
By Kunal Chatterjee
Former India captain and current chief of Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB) Sourav Ganguly has emerged as the consensus candidate for the post of BCCI president after Brijesh Patel of Karnataka appeared to have grabbed the coveted post.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah’s son Jay Shah will be the new secretary while Arun Dhumal will be the new treasurer. Dhumal is the younger brother of MoS Finance and former BCCI president Anurag Thakur.
Monday was the last day to file nomination. No election will be held since all candidates have emerged unopposed after weeks of lobbying and hectic parleys.
The 47-year-old Ganguly will have to demit his post in September 2020 as he will go into compulsory cooling-off period.
Ganguly will turn a new leaf albeit for 10 months even as a new chapter starts in Indian cricket.
Typically like his administrative guru Jagmohan Dalmiya, Ganguly pulled it off after all thought it was a lost match at the last moment.
Patel, backed by Tamil Nadu strongman N. Srinivasan, emerged the presidential candidate when Ganguly remained non-committal on campaigning for the BJP in the 2021 state Assembly elections. Patel could become the IPL chairman.
When the new office-bearers assume office on October 23, it will end a 33-month term of the Committee of Administrators which called the shots in running cricket affairs in the country post the Lodha Committee reforms.
Former India coach Anshuman Gaekwad beat Kirti Azad to be elected as male ICA representative on BCCI’s nine-member Apex Council. Shanta Rangaswamy was earlier elected unopposed as female representative.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee congratulated Ganguly.
“Heartiest congratulations to Sourav Ganguly for being unanimously elected BCCI president. Wish you all the best for your term,” Mamata said in a tweet.
Sourav Ganguly and team were in for a shock on Monday when they entered the BCCI Head Quarter in Mumbai to file the nominations for the various posts of office-bearers as electoral officer N. Gopalaswami was absent. He was not in office till 3 pm, forcing the team to hand over the nomination papers to the legal team of the BCCI.
A newly-picked office-bearer said, “Yes, we had been waiting for the electoral officer, but we finally handed over the papers over to the legal team at around 2.45 pm as the closing time for filing was 3 pm. We still waited till 3 pm and then left,” the official said.
