The new regime at the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) have orchestrated a dramatic change of guard by snubbing N Srinivasan & Co. away from the helm of affairs. While announcing the new-look committees, president Jagmohan Dalmiya and secretary Anurag Thakur ensured that it was their key men who were installed in key positions, thus literally undoing the Srinivasan stranglehold on the BCCI.
The duo have also been evidently in favour of those associations who voted them in during the BCCI elections last month. To begin with, Rajeev Shukla has been re-appointed as the Indian Premier League (IPL) chairman, replacing the incumbent Ranjib Biswal. Shukla, who had contested as part of the Sharad Pawar group, had come second-best in the election for the treasurer’s post and it is learnt that Dalmiya was keen to have the former IPL chief heading the T20 league yet again. Shukla had resigned from the post in the aftermath of the IPL spot fixing scandal two years ago.
Biswal is not the only Srinivasan confidante to miss out. Former secretary Sanjay Patel, who was beaten to the post by Thakur, hasn’t found his name among the 172 members who occupy the 29 different committees. Sources in the BCCI confirmed that this signalled the end of the Srinivasan autocracy in the board.
“This is the end of Srinivasan in the BCCI. The make-up of the committees is a clear indicator that his men no longer find any place in the key committees. All those who have supported the Pawar group or have been in good terms with Dalmiya and Anurag have been rewarded,” said a source in the BCCI.
However, secretary Thakur told The Indian Express that the new committees have been formed as per the new setup in the board. “One needs to look at the larger picture. Everyone has been included as per the new policy. If you look at the committees, every association is represented. They all have experience and they have been part of the board’s setup before too,” he said.
Thakur was also non-committal when asked whether certain factions, especially those who backed him, had been favoured. “In a secret ballot, nobody knows who has voted for whom. We have tried to include all associations in the mix. No one has been left behind,” he said.
Meanwhile, Jyotiraditya Scindia, who had lost out on the vice-president’s post from the Pawar group, has been made the finance committee chairman whereas MP Pandove will now head the National Cricket Academy (NCA) as its chairman. Niranjan Shah, who had been completely sidelined by the Srinivasan regime, is back in the mix after being made vice-chairman of the NCA while also being added to two more important committees — Marketing and Tours & Fixtures.
Still less than a month into his continued…
