Dalmiya back as BCCI boss, Gokaraju to be V-P

Chennai: The cobwebs and periods of acrimony that surrounded the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) seem to have come to an end on Sunday. The path has been cleared for veteran administrator Jagmohan Dalmiya to return unopposed as BCCI president more than a decade after he last held the top job. He emerged as the consensus candidate from incumbent N Srinivasan's camp. Making an entry into the nation’s governing body will be Gokaraju Gangaraju, the strongman from Andhra Cricket Association (ACA) as the nominee from South Zone, which till now was held by HCA’s N Shivlal Yadav, who has also served as the interim president of the Board. Along with Gangaraju, Assam's Goutam Roy (East) and M L Nehru of Jammu and Kashmir representing North Zone, were also elected as the vice-presidents unopposed. The road for Dalmiya was cleared after another former president Sharad Pawar failed to get a proposer from East Zone, prompting him to pull out of the race ahead of the much-anticipated and much-delayed Annual General Meeting, slated for Monday.

Meanwhile, elections will be held for the posts of Secretary, Joint Secretary and Treasurer. Incumbent secretary Sanjay Patel, a known Srinivasan loyalist, will be up against HPCA’s Anurag Thakur, who will be representing the Pawar group.Jharkhand’s Amitabh Choudhary will lock horns with Chetan Desai of Goa for the post of joint secretary, while Haryana’s Anirudh Chaudhry is pitted against UPCA Secretary Rajeev Shukla.

The two Vice-President’s posts with be between Jyotiraditya Scindia and CK Khanna and Ravi Sawant against Samarjit Singh Gaekwad.