New Delhi: Former Delhi captain Mithun Manhas flew to Mumbai early on Sunday morning and filed his nomination for the post of Indian cricket board’s (BCCI) president. He is set to be elected unopposed at the board’s annual general meeting (AGM) on Sept 28 following a dramatic turn of events at a high-profile meeting in the Capital on Saturday night.After a dramatic night, Mithun Manhas filed his nominations and is now set to become the first from Jammu & Kashmir to head the BCCI. The decision comes amid a push to have a cricketer in the leadership position, with technicalities being overlooked to ensure a smooth process. Manhas’ sudden ascension has taken the Indian cricket fraternity by surprise. The 45-year-old will become the first person from Jammu and Kashmir to head the BCCI. Manhas moved to Delhi after playing U-16 cricket for J&K. He will also be the first uncapped player to take the post. Saturday was a hectic day for the power forces of Indian cricket. BCCI has maintained the need to have a cricketer in charge of the board after the Supreme Court-appointed Lodha committee’s recommendations were included in the BCCI constitution in 2019. Manhas’ predecessors were Sourav Ganguly and Roger Binny. TOI understands that the BCCI was in a fix as there wasn’t any obvious option available. The other cricketers who were eligible — by virtue of attending the upcoming AGM — were Ganguly (from Cricket Association of Bengal), Raghuram Bhat (Karnataka State Cricket Association) and Harbhajan Singh (Punjab Cricket Association). While Bhat is slated to become the treasurer, the consensus on Manhas came after intense discussion. Bhat may have missed out since last resident Binny also hailed from KSCA. Unlike Bhat, Manhas was not an elected office-bearer at Jammu and Kashmir Cricket Association (JKCA). He functioned as a director after BCCI formed an ad-hoc committee to run cricket affairs in the state following the High Court’s decision to disband the incumbent office-bearers five years ago. Manhas represented JKCA at previous BCCI AGMs. TOI has learnt that BCCI secretary Devajit Saikia, who is also tipped to continue in his role, played a very influential role in shortlisting the candidates. Saikia’s growth as a BCCI strongman has been confirmed by the developments. In another interesting development, Arun Dhumal will continue to serve as the IPL chairman. “It wasn’t a straightforward decision for the forces in the BCCI. All the technicalities were discussed around Manhas. Legal opinion was taken in this regard. The meeting went on almost till midnight. The board found a way around to have a cricketer as the president,” a BCCI source told TOI. Manhas is known to be a very shrewd operator in cricketing circles. He has played 157 first-class matches and led a Delhi team that had Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir and Aakash Chopra. Manhas has always been rated highly by his contemporary international players. He represented Delhi Daredevils, Pune Warriors and Chennai Super Kings. It is believed that Sehwag and Yuvraj Singh were fond of his cricket intelligence. Manhas finished his domestic career with J&K after he was dropped from the Delhi scheme of things in the 2015-16 season when current India coach Gambhir decided as a captain to move on from veteran players and groom the future of Delhi cricket. Manhas also worked as assistant coach at Gujarat Titans since the inception of the franchise before the management decided to part ways with him and bring in Parthiv Patel last year.New office-bearers to continue even after sports bill TOI has learnt that this new set of office-bearers will continue in their posts even when the government’s sports bill comes into effect in the coming months. It was believed that all federations will have to hold fresh elections once the bill was implemented. However, BCCI isn’t likely to do so. With the ‘cooling off’ clause likely to go away, it will be interesting to see how long the incumbent office-bearers continue.The nominated office-bearers:
- President — Mithun Manhas
- Vice-President — Rajeev Shukla
- Secretary — Devajit Saikia
- Treasurer — Raghuram Bhat
- Joint secretary — Prabtej Bhatia
- IPL Chairman — Arun Dhumal
About Manhas:
- Born in Jammu, moved from J&K to Delhi after playing U-16 cricket
- Played 157 FC matches, 55 IPL matches
- Moved back to J&K after being dropped from Delhi under Gambhir
- Worked as part of BCCI’s ad-hoc committee in JKCA
