MUMBAI: The stage is set for former captain Saurav Ganguly to be BCCI’s new president, Jay Shah, son India’s second most powerful political leader Union Home Minister Amit Shah the new secretary, and Arun Dhumal, younger brother of MoS Finance and former BCCI president Anurag Thakur, treasurer.
Monday is the last day to file nominations but no election will be held since all candidates have emerged unopposed after weeks of lobbying and hectic parleys, PTI reports.
The 47-year-old Ganguly, who is currently president of Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB), will have to demit his post in September, 2020 as he will go into compulsory cooling off period.
Brijesh Patel, backed by Tamil Nadu strongman N Srinivasan, had earlier been touted as the leading candidate for the president’s post. Patel’s name came to the fore more so because Ganguly remained non-committal on campaigning for the BJP in the 2021 state assembly elections. However, when most of the state units opposed the ‘understanding’, the attempts to bring the southpaw “to heel” were discarded.
“Yes, Brijesh was running for the president’s post with N Srinivasan actively lobbying for him. However, there was stiff resistance against him. We are happy Sourav is the new president,” a senior official from a North East affiliated unit told PTI.
The choice for president’s post was always between Ganguly and Patel and the former was finally accepted as a unanimous candidate. Patel is not coming away from this empty handed though. He is reportedly going to be the next chairman of the Indian Premier League, replacing Congress leader Rajeev Shukla, who was deemed ineligible to stand by the BCCI Ombudsman Justice DK Jain (retd).
When the new office bearers assume office, it will end a 33-month term of the Committee of Administrators (CoA), which called the shots in running India’s cricket affairs (and made a right royal hash of it, it needs noting) following a Supreme Court edict based on recommendations made by the Justice RM Lodha Committee.
