Dalmiya BCCI chief, Anurag is secretary

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, March 2

Jagmohan Dalmiya, the veteran cricket administrator from West Bengal, has returned as the BCCI president after a decade.. The shrewd businessman got a walkover as his potential rival Sharad Pawar – the man who banned him from the BCCI in 2006-- backed out from the contest as he reportedly couldn’t find a proposer for his candidature in the elections held in Chennai on Monday.

While Dalmiya’s victory is the biggest story, at least from sentimental perspective, to emerge from the keenly and bitterly contested elections, the biggest gainer from the churn was the North Zone, what with four states from the zone bagging four key positions. The key post of general secretary was bagged by Anurag Thakur, the Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association secretary; Haryana Cricket Association chief Anirudh Chaudhary retained the post of joint secretary; and J&K and Delhi landed the posts of vice-presidents. 

While Thakur defeated outgoing secretary Sanjay Patel, a staunch N Srinivasan loyalist, by one vote, Chaudhary defeated Rajeev Shukla, the Congress leader. The only North Zone state left high and dry is Punjab. One of the prominent members of the Pawar group, they will have to wait a little longer to get their foot back on the BCCI.