BCCI affiliated units to finalise names of new office-bearers in 'informal meeting' in Mumbai ahead of AGM

Pune: All the affiliated units of the BCCI will on Sunday finalise the names of their new office-bearers in an “informal meeting” in Mumbai which is also likely to be attended by former administrators. The new office-bearers will take charge after the BCCI’s Annual General Meeting on 23 October. It is learnt that former BCCI president and current Minister of State finance Anurag Thakur’s suggestions on deciding the names of the office-bearers will be taken up by the board members. [caption id=“attachment_1766945” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Representational photo. Reuters[/caption] Five state units — Tamil Nadu, Haryana, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh and Manipur — barred from the BCCI AGM are all but certain to move court. But the mood among the other members is to have the AGM as quickly as possible and take over the board’s functioning from the Committee of Administrators (CoA). It will be interesting to see if former board president and Tamil Nadu strongman N Srinivasan joins this “informal meeting” in person or on video conference. Sunday is the preferred date for the meeting as Monday, 14 October, is the last date for filing nominations for the office-bearers’ post. Some of the key faces for various posts will be Gujarat’s Jay Shah, former India captain and Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB) president Sourav Ganguly, former Test player and Karnataka nominee Brijesh Patel. Patel is the most experienced among all the qualified board members. One of the younger faces in fray is Himachal Pradesh’s Arun Dhumal, the younger brother of Anurag Thakur, not to forget senior journalist and Delhi association president Rajat Sharma. “Yes, most of us are meeting on Sunday. Mr Thakur will be in Mumbai for his political commitments but we have requested him to meet us as we need his guidance going forward,” a state unit representative, who is already in Mumbai, told PTI on conditions of anonymity. The North eastern states have already expressed their wish of having a seat in the BCCI’s apex council if they are not to be considered for the executive posts (president, secretary, treasurer, and joint secretary). “Don’t think anyone from the NE states will get a plum post but we would certainly like to be a part of the Apex Council as a representative of states. Our members have made it clear that our voice needs to be heard,” an official from one of the North-East units said. While the NE units would love to rally around Ganguly, they are not sure they can do that since the former skipper hasn’t officially announced his candidature for the BCCI president’s post despite swirling speculation. “We haven’t heard anything from Sourav yet on record so it is premature to say whether we would support his candidature or not. But yes, we would like to hear what Anurag ji says as he has been a board veteran and served in many capacities,” he added. Thakur senior’s role will be important since his point of view, for many stakeholders, is an idea of how the central government is looking at the cricket board elections.