- Sunday, March 09, 2025
By: Shubham Ghosh
Former India all-rounder Roger Binny, who was a member of India’s first-ever World Cup-winning squad in 1983, took over as the 36th president of the Indian cricket board, also called the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI). The change of guard happened when the national team is in Australia to play the T20 World Cup.
His appointment was announced at the cricket-governing body’s annual general meeting held in Mumbai in the western state of Maharashtra.
The 67-year-old Binny replaced former India captain Sourav Ganguly, who served since November 2019.
Binny was the only candidate to have filed nomination for the top post.
The election of the next set of office-bearers was a mere formality as all were set to be elected unopposed.
Jay Shah, the son of Indian home minister Amit Shah, continued as the secretary of the board.
Binny was the president of the cricket body of his state Karnataka before taking over as the BCCI chief. In the past, the man from Bengaluru, has been a member of the senior selection committee when Sandeep Patil, one of his colleagues from the 1983 squad, was the chairman. The former cricketer, who finished as the highest wicket-taker in the 1983 World Cup with 18 scalps, would recuse himself from the proceedings whenever the name of his son Stuart Binny, another former India cricketer, came up for discussion for national selection.
Binny’s immediate predecessor Ganguly reportedly had an unceremonious exit from the board since he was keen to continue as the president for another term but he was told that there was no precedence of the president getting a second term as the BCCI chief.
He was reportedly offered chairmanship of the Indian Premier League but he refused saying he could not accept the position of a head of a sub-committee in the BCCI after leading the board.
The 50-year-old is reportedly eyeing to become the president of the cricket board of his home state West Bengal, which he had held before becoming the BCCI chief.
