Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) interim secretary Devjit Saikia will be the next secretary of the board. He has filed his candidature for the post of secretary. The last date for nomination was January 4, none other than him had filled the nomination form.
By-elections for the posts of secretary and treasurer in BCCI will be held on January 12. Saikia will continue as secretary as there is no other candidate. He took over in December from Jay Shah, who has now become the president of the International Cricket Council (ICC).
Devjit Saikia has been the Joint Secretary of BCCI since 2019.
Prabhatej Bhatia will remain as Treasurer Only one nomination was filed for the post of Treasurer of BCCI. Prabhatej Singh Bhatia had filed his candidature for the post, so it is certain that he will also be elected unopposed in the by-election. Nominations were due on January 4 by 5 pm. The nominations will be verified till January 6, after which the election will be held on January 12.
BCCI meeting also on 12th January The BCCI is yet to take official approval to hold the by-election. However, there is a special general meeting of the board on 12th January itself. For the BCCI by-elections, former Election Commission chief A.K. Jyoti is an election officer. They will manage the elections.
Saikia is a member of the Assam Cricket Association Devjit Saikian was made the interim secretary of BCCI on December 6. He is a member of Assam Cricket Association. who replaced Jai Shah. Earlier there were reports that Arun Jaitley's son Rohan Jaitley would become the secretary, but it was only last month that joint secretary Saikia's name surfaced.
On the other hand, Bhatia is part of the Chhattisgarh Cricket Association. He will replace Ashish Shelar as Treasurer. Ashish became part of the Maharashtra government and as per the rules central and state government ministers cannot be part of BCCI.
Devjit Saikia attended the ICC meeting in Dubai last month as BCCI's representative.
The post of Joint Secretary will remain vacant The post of joint secretary will fall vacant as soon as Saikia takes over as secretary. A decision will also be taken on the post of joint secretary in the meeting to be held on January 12. Saikia will hold the post of BCCI secretary only till September. After that re-election will be held.
A member in BCCI can hold an official position for only 3 years, after which he has to undergo a cooling off period of 3 years. The three-year term of the current secretary's post will end in September this year. Saikia was preceded by Jai Shah who was appointed to the post for two and a half years. Saikia will be elected as secretary in the by-election on January 12. They can also apply for this post again in September.
Image Credit: Images/graphics belong to (Divya-Bhaskar).