Kolkata: Union Home Minister Amit Shah, the country’s second-most powerful man, has to end his innings as a cricket administrator. However, just about everybody in the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) is convinced Shah will still have the biggest say in who gets to head the 90-year-old institution from next month.
It’s early days, but ThePrint understands the contest may well be between much-admired former India captain Sourav Ganguly and media personality Rajat Sharma. Nobody has openly placed his cards on the table, but the BCCI cookie could crumble in that manner.
Elections are to be held during the BCCI’s much-awaited Annual General Meeting on 22 October.
Vinod Rai, who heads the Supreme Court-appointed Committee of Administrators that has been calling the shots in the BCCI since January 2017, is firm on that date.
In Rai’s opinion, the “critical mass” of compliant member associations is already there to take the process of the AGM forward. However, expect legal challenges.
The last AGM was almost three years ago, months before Anurag Thakur and Ajay Shirke were removed from their positions as BCCI president and secretary, respectively, by the Supreme Court. Thakur is now the Union Minister of State for Finance.
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If elected, it’ll be a short tenure for Ganguly
Should Ganguly be elected, the former will not have a tenure beyond nine months, because a cooling-off period of three years would become compulsory next July. Ganguly, after all, has either been president or joint-secretary of the Cricket Association of Bengal from July 2014.
Former India cricketer, chief selector and veteran administrator Brijesh Patel, for one, does not view the cooling-off factor as a disadvantage for Ganguly.
“Of course, I will be delighted if Dada (Ganguly) stands for the president’s post. Nine months at a critical period in the BCCI’s history is enough time to leave an imprint. I do not see that as a minus for him. Moreover, Dada has the stature,” Patel told ThePrint Friday.
The only time a former India captain has been the full-time president of the BCCI was back in the 1950s, when the Maharajkumar of Vizianagaram was at the helm. The position has also been held by Sunil Gavaskar, in an interim capacity.
Be it Ganguly or Sharma, or somebody else (Abhay Apte, perhaps), the next president of the BCCI would be the first after the reforms. As Patel put it, a “critical period” lies ahead for the BCCI.
Sharma has been playing his cards smartly
Hand-picked by the late Arun Jaitley to head the controversy-tainted Delhi & District Cricket Association (DDCA) in July 2018, Rajat Sharma may have a lengthy tenure if he becomes the BCCI president — specifically, a maximum of two three-year terms, minus the period served as president of the DDCA.
It is learnt that Sharma, the chairman and editor-in-chief of India TV, is on “very good terms” with key players in the BJP, which heads the government at the Centre.
Sharma has been playing his cards smartly: For example, he got Shah to felicitate Team India during Thursday evening’s DDCA function at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium.
It was intended to convey a message.
It’s not that Ganguly is without admirers, across party lines. In fact, not long ago, the BJP tried hard to woo him. What’s significant is that Ganguly enjoys God-like status in West Bengal, a state where the BJP has high aspirations.
Apparently, former Union minister and Congress leader Rajeev Shukla has been “canvassing support” to become BCCI president, but the big question is whether he is eligible to be a candidate. Shukla is related to Union minister Ravi Shankar Prasad.
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The Amit Shah factor
Getting back to Shah… He has either been president or vice-president of the Gujarat Cricket Association (GCA) for the past 10 years, and is ineligible to continue on two counts: He is a minister, and secondly, has been an office-bearer for well over six years at a stretch.
Cooling-off is mandatory upon completion of six years. Only after that can an office-bearer, either in the BCCI or in any of its member associations, make a comeback.
Even if Shah had not joined Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government after the 2019 general elections, he was ineligible to remain GCA president.
Shah became vice-president of the GCA when Modi, then Gujarat’s chief minister, became its president in September 2009. Modi stepped down weeks after the 2014 general elections and was succeeded by Shah.
The Modi-Shah partnership ended the Congress’ hold over the GCA by forcing an end to Narhari Amin’s 16-year reign.
A former deputy chief minister of Gujarat, Amin has since joined the BJP. Naturally, he was rewarded, but kept far away from the GCA.
Over the years, the GCA has firmly been in Shah’s control. Growing responsibilities in New Delhi have, however, made Shah rely on son Jay to more or less run the organisation.
Jay Shah is understood to have resigned as GCA joint-secretary, fuelling speculation that he may have a role to play in the BCCI. He has attended AGMs and SGMs and is definitely not an unknown face. Plus, the Shah surname has its own effect.
As with Ganguly, however, the length of Jay Shah’s potential tenure will be an issue with regard to the cooling-off provision.
Thanks to Modi and Shah, the GCA has come to enjoy a much higher profile in the BCCI in the past 10 years. But with Shah ineligible to continue as GCA president, the BJP (which is in power in Gujarat too) has to find a new face to retain control of the home association of India’s top strike bowler, Jasprit Bumrah. It is inconceivable that anybody but a BJP man would be the next GCA president.
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I request BJP to get out of BCCI unlike all corrupt congress admins. Let the sport body run by sportsmen.
Rajat Sharma has already given title of captain to Amit Shah who has made BJP as world’s biggest party at the DDCA event to rename Kotla as Arun Jaitley. When cricket board has been turned as BJP board Rajat Sharma is the front runner.