Mumbai: The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) held its 87th Annual General Meeting (AGM) on Wednesday in Mumbai. Anurag Thakur, president will continue to represent India at ICC. It was widely speculated that Tamil Nadu Cricket Association (TNCA) supremo and strongman N Srinivasan could be India’s representative at ICC.
BCCI’S AGM was power packed but decisions taken were on expected lines. Sharad Pawar will be the alternate director for ICC meetings and Ajay Shirke; secretary faced no contest as he was chosen unopposed.
The day’s biggest development was the announcement of India’s new selection committee. MSK Prasad, former Indian wicket-keeper was selected as the chief selector. He will be joined by Sarandeep Singh, Gagan Khoda, Devang Gandhi and Jatin Paranjpe. Sandeep Patil led selection committee will pass the baton to new set of selectors.
Other key decisions:
Former India seamer Venkatesh Prasad was retained as chairman of the junior selection committee, which has Amit Sharma, Gyanendra Pandey and Ashish Kapoor as new members. Rakesh Parikh was also retained on the panel
The women’s selection committee will be chaired by Hemlata Kala and comprise Shashi Gupta, Anjali Pendharkar, Lopamudra Banerjee and Sudha Shah
The BCCI has approved possession of lands in Dharamasala and Bangalore as additional facilities for the NCA.
Srinivasan has been involved in back channel talks and there is a plan to bring the former president of BCCI to the fold. Srinivasan had to quit because of his son-in-law Gurunath Meiyappan betting on Chennai Super Kings. Srinivasan’s company India Cements owned the CSK and it has been banned for two years from the IPL.
The power equations are changing as most of the BCCI officials don’t see eye to eye with former BCCI president and current ICC chairman Shashank Manohar over a range of issues. Manohar has ruffled many feathers in the BCCI and members allege that Manohar is deliberately trying to sideline world’s richest cricketing body and is weakening the BCCI at world stage.
Srinivasan is in favour with BCCI and has opposed Lodha committee findings. The return has been delayed but Srinivasan and Thakur are working on quite a few things and the return of Srinivasan to the BCCI fold could happen sooner rather than later.
BCCI’s AGM has been in news but now focus shifts to India taking on New Zealand at Kanpur. India are expected to beat Black Caps and BCCI would like cricketing action to take centre stage and all the boardroom talks taking a backseat.