Will Sourav Ganguly or Harbhajan Singh be the next BCCI president? Why are key BJP leaders scheduled to meet top Board officials in Delhi on September 20? EXPLAINED

September is a month of transition for the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI). After Dream11's withdrawal as the official jersey sponsor, the national team was left without a sponsor for the ongoing Asia Cup tournament. That void has been filled with Apollo Tyres taking over as the new official jersey sponsor of the national team. The next set of events, arguably the most important of the lot, are about the BCCI elections to decide the next cycle of office bearers including the President.

According to the schedule, September 28 is the day when the next set of office bearers will be elected but a lot could happen much before the chosen date. According to Cricbuzz, senior BCCI officials are expected to meet top BJP leaders including Amit Shah on Saturday (September 20) in Delhi. The agenda of this meeting is reportedly to finalise the name of the next BCCI President and other key officials. The elections will officially be held as slated on September 28 but that would only be of academic interest as the big calls would have already been made. Therefore, all eyes are now on what will transpire in Delhi on September 20.

It was in similarly unofficial meeting in 2022 that Roger Binny was chosen as the new BCCI president, replacing Sourav Ganguly who had held the role from 2019-2022. According to Cricbuzz, the former Indian captain faced scathing criticism from the likes of N Srinivasan who minced no words in his opinion about Ganguly's controversial stint as BCCI president. Fast forward to 2025 and the newly-elected Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB) chief is said to have an outside chance of getting BCCI's top job once more. Also in the race is Harbhajan Singh, Kiran More and Raghuram Bhatt. Of these four, More is the dark horse as his name isn't in the list of nominations given by the State cricket associations in the country.

However, there is a rule in the BCCI lawbook that gives an allowance to add new candidates apart from the State-backed nominees, which means that More could be in the race. Reports suggest that the Central government has always wanted experienced athletes to head their respective associations, something that is obvious when we look at who the recent BCCI presidents were. This could push things relatively in favour of Ganguly, Harbhajan and More. The next set of national selectors for women's cricket, two selectors for men's cricket and one for junior's cricket will also be decided on September 28.