Manhas set to be elected BCCI chief

Mithun Manhas, a stalwart of domestic cricket, is set to be elected unopposed as the president of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) on September 28. Manhas, the former Delhi captain who is a veteran of 157 First Class matches, filed his nomination papers at the BCCI headquarters on Sunday.

Sunday was the last day for filing the nominations. All the six Apex Council slots are set to be elected unopposed with the respective candidates filing their nomination papers in person on Sunday.

“We unanimously decided to nominate him (Manhas) as the president. Since Manhas is a former player it was decided to make him the president,” Rajeev Shukla, who is set to continue as the vice-president, told the mediapersons.

Manhas, who will turn 46 next month, did not interact with the media. He will thus become the most low-key BCCI chief after the Supreme Court-directed administrative reforms were implemented by the BCCI. While Sourav Ganguly, former India captain, held the post from 2019 to 2022, he was succeeded by Roger Binny, a 1983 World Cup-winner.

Manhas, who had a prolonged career as Delhi’s batting mainstay before ending his stint with Jammu & Kashmir, is considered to be a trusted ally of the forces that administer BCCI. A classical batter, who is among the top names in the list of batters unfortunate to have missed out on an India cap, Manhas has been preferred over Test stalwarts.

Manhas, who played 44 IPL games from 2010 to 2014 and was the assistant coach with Gujarat Titans for three seasons, has been nominated to represent J&K in the AGM. Former Test spinners Harbhajan Singh and Raghuram Bhat will represent Punjab and Karnataka, respectively.

The BCCI election is scheduled during its annual general meeting at its headquarters next Sunday. The Hindu understands that after consulting some of the top ministers in the government, the BCCI hierarchy zeroed in on Manhas as the consensus candidate.

Devajit Saikia and Shukla are set to continue as the secretary and vice-president, respectively. Bhat filed his nomination papers on Sunday for the treasurer’s post. Prabhtej Singh Bhatia, who had held the post for almost a year, is likely to be elected unopposed as the joint secretary.

The sixth slot in the BCCI apex council is set to go to Jaydev Shah, the former Saurashtra captain who holds the record for having led a team for the most matches in Ranji Trophy.

“I have been the secretary for the last few months and my colleagues wanted me to file the nomination,” said Saikia who has played four Ranji games for Assam. After conducting the scrutiny of the nomination papers, election officer A.K. Joti will announce the final list of valid nominations on Monday.