Newly appointed BCCI president Mithun Manhas vows to ‘develop and take Indian cricket forward’

As Mithun Manhas took charge as the president of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) on Sunday, he made it clear that his only aim will be to ‘develop and take Indian cricket forward’.

The 45-year-old Manhas, who has been a domestic stalwart for Delhi and later for Jammu and Kashmir, succeeded Roger Binny as the head of the Board.

Manhas admitted that his stint with the Jammu and Kashmir Cricket Association (JKCA) as an administrator will help him in his new role. “Maybe my work, my credentials (worked in my favour to become the president). Credentials both as an administrator, as well as a cricketer. Over the last four years, I’ve been working with the JKCA, we have reached seven knockouts, which never happened before, and that experience will certainly help.”

In 2021-22 and in 2024 and 2025, the Jammu and Kashmir senior women’s team reached the knockouts, followed by the Ranji Trophy team reaching the quarterfinals last season. In 2023-2024, the U-15 team made the knockouts, whereas the men’s U-23 State A team made it to the knockouts in the 2024-2025 season. The men’s team made it to the Vijay Hazare Trophy quarterfinals in 2022-2023 season, the men’s U-25 made pre-quarterfinals in 2022-2023.

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Since 2019, the BCCI has been headed by former cricketers – Sourav Ganguly, Binny, and now Manhas. “It’s a huge responsibility as well. I give my assurance that I’ll be committed to do it to the best of my ability and dedication and passion,” said Manhas, a veteran of 157 first-class and 130 List A matches for Delhi and Jammu and Kashmir.

A middle-order batter, Manhas belonged to a generation when Indian cricket was dominated by Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly and VVS Laxman. Despite being one of the consistent performers for Delhi in his long domestic career, Manhas couldn’t find a spot at the India level.

Taking over as the head of the Board, Manhas made it clear that he would put the players’ interest first. While Manhas took charge as the president, Rajeev Shukla will continue as the vice-president and Devajit Saikia will be the secretary.

Prabhtej Bhatia will be the joint secretary, whereas former Test cricketer Raghuram Bhat is the treasurer. Former Saurashtra captain Jaydev Shah has been inducted into the apex council, while Arun Dhumal will continue as the chairman of the IPL, along with Khairul Jamal Majumdar as a member.

Ganguly Absent, Harbhajan Praises Manhas

While Sourav Ganguly, the former BCCI president and the current head of the Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB) was the only notable absentee in Sunday’s AGM, his colleague and former India spinner Harbhajan Singh attended the meeting as a representative of Punjab Cricket Association.

This is the second time in a row that there was no official representation of the CAB in the BCCI AGM. Last year, the association missed the deadline to file the nomination, which resulted in the election officer A.K. Joti leaving CAB out from the electoral list. Even though Snehasish Ganguly attended the AGM, he was not part of the electoral poll.

Interestingly, former CAB president Avishek Dalmiya was present for Sunday’s AGM, as a representative of the National Cricket Club.

Meanwhile, Harshvardan Tiwary, 24, became the youngest-ever president of Bihar Cricket Association.

Harbhajan said that having a player at the helm of the Board always helps.

“When a cricketer heads a cricket body, his experience and other qualities help. It’s a good decision and it’s been happening for the last three terms, which is a great thing for the cricketers as well for him to give something back to the game,” Harbhajan said.

“The BCCI has started this and there cannot be anything greater for any cricketer that he can also give something back. I’ve played a lot of cricket with Mithun since U19 days and I am very happy for him.

“I hope that those things which he (perhaps) didn’t get in terms of facilities as a cricketer or could not get to that point (in career), from whatever he has learnt so far in his life, he does such a job that no young cricketer is left behind due to lack of infrastructure,” Harbhajan added.

“A lot of development is taking place across the country if we talk about it. New grounds are coming up in new places and cricket is going to smaller venues. The credit goes to the BCCI and I hope Mithun will carry forward the same legacy and does a great job,” Harbhajan added.

Proposal to revive TRD wing

There was a recommendation in the AGM that the Talent Resource Development wing, a scouting programme that had once discovered future stars like MS Dhoni, Suresh Raina, Irfan Pathan, RP Singh, and Piyush Chawla.

The recommendation will now be left to the apex council to decide on. Back in 2015, the then cricket advisory panel, comprising Sachin Tendulkar, Ganguly and V.V.S. Laxman had also recommended the revival of the TRDO wing. But it did not work out.

Published on Sep 28, 2025