Team Ganguly-Shah: Tracking The Journeys Of Key BCCI Office-Bearers

The recent Supreme Court judgement, which allowed BCCI to make amendments in its constitution to relax the much-debated and mandatory three-year cooling-off period, has paved the way for BCCI president Sourav Ganguly and secretary Jay Shah to continue for another term in office.

As per the new order, the cooling-off period for office-bearers will kick in after two consecutive terms at either the BCCI or at the state association level. So the office-bearers can now have a maximum of 12 years at one go: Two three-year terms at the state association level and two three-year terms at the BCCI, and after this, the cooling-off period will be applicable.

Before joining BCCI in October 2019, both Ganguly and Shah had already served one term each at the state level, which meant that they would have been disqualified under the existing rule. However, the latest Supreme Court decision has come as a big relief for them.

According to reports, the 33-year old Jay Shah has the backing of many state associations and he could be the next BCCI president. The Indian board is soon going to call its annual general body meeting and notices will be issued to state associations for fresh elections.

With Shah taking the top position in the BCCI, former Indian captain Ganguly could take on the ICC chairman's role. However, only time will tell about these developments. Before the fresh election, IANS takes a look at the journey and background of current office-bearers in cricket administration.

Sourav Ganguly, President

Touted as one of the visionaries and legendary captains, Ganguly played his last match for India in November 2008. He entered into the cricket administration field as the Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB) secretary in 2014 and then president in late 2015.

He has been the president of the BCCI since October 2019

Jay Shah, Secretary

The 33-year-old Shah is the youngest office-bearer in the BCCI. Jay, who is Home Minister Amit Shah's son, has been with the Gujarat Cricket Association (GCA) since 2009.

After serving as an executive board member of the Central Board of Cricket, Ahmedabad, starting 2009, he became the joint secretary of the GCA in September 2013. During his tenure as joint secretary, he oversaw GCA's construction of the Narendra Modi Stadium, in Ahmedabad, along with his father Amit Shah who was GCA president at the time.

Jay Shah became a member of the finance and marketing committees of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) in 2015. He stepped down from the position of GCA joint secretary in September 2019.

The following month, he was elected as the secretary of BCCI and has been in the post since then. In December 2019, the BCCI selected Shah as its representative for future CEC meetings of the International Cricket Council. In January 2021, the Asian Cricket Council appointed Jay Shah as president.

Arun Singh Dhumal, Treasurer

Dhumal also hails from a political family with his elder brother Anurag Thakur currently being the Union Minister of Sports, Youth Affairs and Minister of Information and Broadcasting. Before joining the BCCI, Dhumal served as vice-president of Himachal cricket body, HPCA between 2012 and 2015 when Thakur was its president.

He also led a three-member ad-hoc committee which was formed to run HPCA in the wake of the Lodha panel recommendations to reform Indian cricket and also has the experience of representing HPCA in the BCCI.

Jayesh George, Joint Secretary

George has years of experience in cricket administration, having been part of Kerala Cricket Association (KCA) as its secretary, joint secretary, treasurer and the president as well. He was part of the KCA since 2005, before joining the BCCI.

Rajeev Shukla, Vice President

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Shukla, an Indian politician, former journalist, political commentator and the former chairman of the Indian Premier League, was elected as vice-president of BCCI unopposed on Dec 18, 2020. The post of vice-president became vacant after Mahim Verma stepped down and returned to his home state, Uttarakhand where he was elected as secretary of the state's association once again.