On Saturday (September 20), senior BJP leaders had met with key officials from the BCCI with the agenda being to make unofficial selections regarding the next set of BCCI office bearers. The priority selection was, as expected, about who the next BCCI president would be. Sourav Ganguly had been nominated by the Cricket Association of Bengal while the Punjab Cricket Association had nominated Harbhajan Singh for the race.
Over the last week, the limelight was firmly on Ganguly and Singh, especially given their starry nature and experience as former players. Kiran More was also in the mix, despite not being nominated by any of the state associations. Former Karnataka spinner Raghuram Bhatt also was in the race but as per reports, Mithun Manhas, who was nominated by the Jammu and Kashmir Cricket Association, is all set to become the new BCCI president. According to Cricbuzz, the Delhi veteran has filed his nomination for the post on Sunday (September 21), which is also the deadline day for filing nominations.
Manhas has been a veteran in domestic cricket with a career that spanned 18 years and over 150 First-class matches. A loyal servant of Delhi cricket, Manhas moved bases during his role as administrator to serve in Jammu and Kashmir. and Rajeev Shukla will continue to be the BCCI vice-president and he revealed what worked in favour of Manhas for the big job.
"His cricketing background has helped him get the position," said Shukla from the BCCI office to Cricbuzz.
Bhatt, meanwhile, is set to become the new BCCI treasurer while Devajit Saikia and Prabhtej Bhatia will take the roles of secretary and joint secretary respectively. Meanwhile, IPL chairman Arun Dhumal is set to continue in his role although he hasn't yet filed his nomination so far.
