MUMBAI: All office-bearers will reportedly be elected unopposed during the BCCI’s upcoming elections, with former Delhi cricketer Mithun Manhas confirmed as the next president.
For the record, “elections” for various office bearers are scheduled to be held at the BCCI’s annual general meeting on September 28 in Mumbai.
After filing their nominations on Sunday afternoon, the incoming team flew together to Ahmedabad, where an informal meeting-cum-get-together was scheduled, Cricbuzz reports. “There is no formal agenda as such; it will just be an informal meeting,” a source informed the cricket platform.
Per Cricbuzz, BCCI members had expressed a preference for a former player to take the top job, but only a handful at the AGM met that criterion — Sourav Ganguly, Harbhajan Singh, Raghuram Bhat, Jaydev Shah, and Manhas. Ganguly and Singh were discounted owing to their numerous commercial and commentary commitments, while Bhat was ruled out since the outgoing president, Roger Binny, also hails from Karnataka. The board felt that two consecutive presidents from the same state would not be ideal.
That narrowed the field to Manhas and Shah. Manhas eventually won backing, with many feeling it was time Jammu & Kashmir gained representation at the highest level of Indian cricket administration. Rajeev Shukla remarked, “His cricketing background has helped.” Once Manhas was confirmed for the presidency, Shah was appointed as the general body’s sole representative on the Apex Council.
Manhas, who will turn 46 in October, is currently part of the sub-committee appointed by the BCCI to run the Jammu & Kashmir Cricket Association.
According to ESPNcricinfo, there is likely to be a second cricketer among the BCCI office bearers, with former Karnataka and India spinner Raghuram Bhat set to take over as treasurer. Bhat is currently president of the Karnataka State Cricket Association.
The ‘elected’ members
* President: Mithun Manhas (J&K)
* Vice-president: Rajeev Shukla (UP)
* Secretary: Devajit Saikia (Assam)
* Joint secretary: Prabhtej Singh Bhatia (Chhattisgarh)
* Treasurer: Raghuram Bhat (Karnataka)
* IPL chairman: Arun Singh Dhumal (HP)
* IPL GC member: Mamon Majumdar (Mizoram)
* Apex Council Member: Jaydev Shah (Saurashtra)
