Race to replace BCCI secretary Jay Shah heats up..

IMAGE: Jay Shah is expected to step down from his post in the last week of November . Photograph: BCCI

The members who were present at the 93rd BCCI Annual General Meeting (AGM) in Bengaluru on Sunday requested incumbent secretary Jay Shah to speed up the process of finding his successor to keep the transition of power as smooth as possible.

Shah is expected to step down from his post in the last week of November and take over as the chairman of International Cricket Council (ICC) for a three-year period from December 1.

While selecting the new secretary was not on the AGM agenda, it has been learnt that the attendees discussed the succession plan among themselves to keep the procedure open.

“It was a normal request to keep all due process in place at the earliest as there will be clarity for us. Also, we have some big events like the IPL auction coming up, so it should not be like we will be handling everything at one go,” a state association representative who attended the AGM told PTI.

As things stand now, Rohan Jaitley, president of Delhi and District Cricket Association, BCCI treasurer Ashish Shelar, joint secretary Devajit Saikia and Gujarat Cricket Association secretary Anil Patel are the candidates who are in the fray to succeed Shah, unless a dark horse emerges in the latter stages of the selection process.

With no secretary election on agenda, the primary focal point of the AGM was the nomination of two representatives of India to the ICC meetings.

Currently, Shah is BCCI's representative on the ICC Board and IPL chairman Arun Dhumal is in the Chief Executives' Committee.

The AGM entrusted the general body members to recommend two names soon for the posts – director and alternate director – as the ICC has also scheduled a conclave in Dubai right after the final of the upcoming women's T20 World Cup.

As PTI reported on Saturday, Arun Singh Dhumal and Avishek Dalmiya were elected to the IPL Governing Council as general body representatives with former all set to continue as the league's chairman at least till IPL 2025.

Former Andhra cricketer, V. Chamundeswarnath was nominated by the Indian Cricketers Association (ICA) as a player representative and was inducted into the IPL GC.

"The members of the general body also appreciated the efforts of the office bearers for the work undertaken with respect to the new National Cricket Academy campus, dubbed as the Centre of Excellence near the Bengaluru International Airport," said the BCCI in a release.

In that context, the AGM also featured the screening of a 17-minute-long tribute video to Shah, highlighting the strong services he rendered to Indian cricket in his role as the board's secretary.

VVS Laxman, head of the Centre of Excellence, also lavished praise on Shah for his visionary effort to turn the project a reality.

“One person I would definitely want to single out is Jay because I have seen and I have been part of various meetings when he came here, interacted with the L&T (construction) team.

“The kind of timelines, the kind of deadlines he has put on them, and almost while empowering them, he made sure that all of them followed the timelines,” Laxman told a select gathering here on Sunday at the Centre of Excellence, which was inaugurated on Saturday in a closed-door ceremony.

Other than that the AGM ratified the annual budget for the 2024-25 season and the members unanimously resolved to maintain BCCI's legal status as a society, an item which was originally not in the agenda of the meeting.

"The members further resolved that the tournaments of the BCCI, including the IPL, shall not be converted into a company," the statement added.