N. Srinivasan will be re-elected unopposed at the Board of Control for Cricket in India’s (BCCI) annual general body meeting here on Sunday.
The 68-year-old Srinivasan’s was the only nomination filed for the Board president’s post with the deadline expiring on Saturday evening.
All the six South Zone State associations backed Srinivasan; this is South’s turn. No other name was proposed or seconded by any South Zone member; this is mandatory for a contest to happen.
The meeting begins at 11 a.m. on Sunday. According to BCCI rules, no name can be proposed during the meeting.
The Supreme Court on Friday allowed Srinivasan to contest the election for extending his term by a year after two regular years, but had prohibited him from taking charge till it hears the case filed by the Cricket Association of Bihar. The next hearing of the case is on Monday.
Even if there was some opposition to Srinivasan, it failed to gather momentum after former Board president Shashank Manohar refused to throw his hat in the ring.
Hectic day
Srinivasan, on Saturday, also submitted his team for the next term; it was a day of hectic informal meetings.
Chitrak Mitra (East Zone) and Shivlal Yadav (South Zone) will continue as vice-presidents. However, Niranjan Shah (Saurashtra) will be replaced by Ravi Sawant (Mumbai) for the candidate from West Zone. S.P. Bansal (Delhi) will take the place of Arun Jaitley (Delhi), who opted out with the general elections approaching, as the representative from North Zone. And Rajiv Shukla (Uttar Pradesh) will come in for Sudhir Dabir (Vidharba) for Central Zone.
Sanjay Patel, who stepped in after the resignation of Sanjay Jagdale, will continue as secretary. He could be given the signing authority till Srinivasan takes charge.
With Sawant, who assumed the post of the treasurer after Ajay Shirke’s resignation, set to become a vice-president, Anirudh Chaudhury (Haryana) will be the new man in-charge of BCCI’s finances.
It is learnt that Dabir, close to Manohar, was not keen on continuing. And the position of Niranjan Shah, who had taken a rather anti-Srinivasan stance, had become untenable. The AGM will pick the IPL chief and the finance and marketing panels. The senior selection committee is expected to remain unchanged.
Jagmohan Dalmiya is in the race for the job of the IPL chief. While his age (73) can be held against him, the former BCCI chief can always designate someone to do all the running even while controlling the cash-rich league.
Former Indian leg-spinning great Anil Kumble also appears to be a strong contender.
