Manhas Elected BCCI President, Ushering in New Era for Indian Cricket Or Former Delhi Captain Mithun Manhas Ascends to BCCI Presidency

Mithun Manhas, the former Delhi captain, has been elected the new BCCI president at the 94th annual general meeting of the board. He is the 37th elected BCCI president (interim appointees have overseen matters on five occasions).

Manhas was the only person in the fray for the president's post, which had been vacant since former India allrounder Roger Binny stepped down in August this year. Rajeev Shukla, the BCCI vice-president, had served in the position in an interim capacity since.

Shukla, meanwhile, continues as the vice-president, with Devajit Saikia continuing as the board secretary. There is a second cricketer among the BCCI office bearers, with former Karnataka and India spinner Raghuram Bhat taking over as treasurer. Bhat was the Karnataka State Cricket Association for the 2022-2025 period; his term officially ends on September 30. Prabhtej Singh Bhatia - the former treasurer - is the new joint secretary.

Pragyan Ojha and RP Singh, meanwhile, have replaced S Sharath and Subroto Banerjee in the senior national men's selection panel. The committee is led by Ajit Agarkar, whose term runs till the 2026 T20 World Cup, and also has Ajay Ratra and SS Das. Ojha is now the most experienced cricketer in the panel behind Agarkar. Banerjee's term was over, and Sharath has been moved to the junior selection panel as its chairperson, replacing Thilak Naidu. The others in the committee are Harvinder Sodhi, Ranadeb Bose, Pathik Patel and Krishna Mohan.

Former Saurashtra captain Jaydev Shah has also been added to the BCCI's Apex Council, replacing Mizoram's Khairul Jamal Majumdar, who has become a part of the two-man IPL Governing Council, alongside Arun Dhumal, the chairperson.

In the senior women's national selection committee, Amita Sharma has replaced Neetu David as the chairperson. Her team comprises Shyama Dey, Sulakshana Naik, Jaya Sharma and Sravanthi Naidu. Apart from Dey, the rest are new inductees.

Jayesh George will continue as the chairperson of the Women's Premier League committee, which has senior BCCI functionaries Manhas, Shukla, Saikia, Bhatia and Bhat, as well as Dhumal. The others are Madhumati Lele, Sanjay Tandon and RI Palani.

Manhas, who will turn 46 in October, was part of the sub-committee appointed by the BCCI to run the Jammu & Kashmir Cricket Association. Born in Jammu, Manhas switched from Delhi to Jammu and Kashmir in 2015 before retiring the following year. He has since worked as a coach with various sides, including as batting consultant for the Bangladesh men's Under-19s as well as IPL sides Kings XI Punjab (now Punjab Kings), Royal Challengers Bengaluru and Gujarat Titans. A giant of Indian domestic cricket, Manhas played from 1997-98 to 2016-17 in 157 first-class games, where he scored 9714 runs; 130 List A matches, with 4126 runs; and 91 T20s (1170 runs).

As reported by ESPNcricinfo, Manhas' name came up during an informal meeting last Saturday in Delhi attended by former and current BCCI members, including current ICC chairman Jay Shah, Shukla, Saikia, Delhi and Districts Cricket Association president Rohan Jaitley, and former board secretary Niranjan Shah.

More to follow...