- Monday, March 10, 2025
By: Shubham Ghosh
India’s 1983 World Cup winning hero Roger Binny is set to become the new BCCI President as incumbent Sourav Ganguly, who held the position for three years, will make way for him at the board’s annual general meeting (AGM) in Mumbai on October 18.
After hectic parleys and back-channel discussions in the past one week, it was decided that the 67-year-old from Bengaluru would be the 36th board president.
Jay Shah, son of Indian home minister Amit Shah, will continue as the board’s secretary for his second consecutive term.
Shah will also replace Ganguly as India’s representative at the all powerful ICC board.
Rajeev Shukla will continue as the vice president.
Indian sports minister Anurag Thakur’s younger brother Arun Singh Dhumal will now become the chairman of the Indian Premier League (IPL), replacing Brijesh Patel.
Ashish Shelar, an influential Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader from Maharashtra, will be the new treasurer which means that he won’t become the president of the Mumbai Cricket Association.
He was supposed to take up the role with support from a faction led by Mumbai’s influential politician Sharad Pawar, a former president of the BCCI and the International Cricket Council.
Devajit Saikia, a close aide of Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma who is also from the BJP, will replace Jayesh George as the new joint secretary.
Whether the BCCI will contest for the ICC chairmanship hasn’t been decided as yet.
“An influential minister in the central government played a key role in deciding the positions in the Board set up,” a BCCI source told Press Trust of India.
Binny, an all-rounder, was one of the architects of India’s historic World Cup triumph in 1983 under the leadership of Kapil Dev. He was the highest wicket-taker in that tournament with 18 scalps in eight games.
Meanwhile, Ganguly, who reached Mumbai on Monday (10) evening, had meetings with the powers that be in New Delhi. While he was keen to continue as the president, he was told that there is no precedence of giving a second term to the board president.
“Sourav was offered IPL chairmanship but he politely declined the offer. His logic was that he cannot accept becoming head of a sub-committee in BCCI after heading the same institution,” the BCCI source said.
While Binny is a rather surprise choice to head the BCCI, hints were dropped that he will get some position when Karnataka State Cricket Association (KSCA) named him as its representative at BCCI AGM instead of secretary Santosh Menon, PTI reported.
“Roger is one of the finest human beings and a thorough gentleman, who has graced the field for India. Plus he is also a World Cup hero and has a squeaky clean image. He resigned from selection committee as his son Stuart back then was in India contention,” the BCCI source added.
