Mithun Manhas Named BCCI President

Mithun Manhas has become the 37th president of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI). Manhas, the first person from Jammu and Kashmir to head the BCCI, was elected unopposed during the Annual General Meeting (AGM) of the board held at its headquarters in Mumbai on Sunday. He’s the first uncapped player to have taken charge of the world’s richest cricket board.

Welcoming Manhas’ election, former India spinner Harbhajan Singh, attending the AGM as Punjab Cricket Association’s representative, said a cricketer at the helm of affairs of the Board was a positive step. Manhas, 45, succeeds Roger Binny, who stepped down after turning 70 earlier this year. Binny, a member of India’s World Cup-winning squad of 1983, served in the role for nearly three years.

The Jammu-born Manhas is a former Delhi cricketer who played 157 First-Class, 130 List A, and 55 IPL matches in a long domestic career from 1997-98 to 2016-17. He has an impressive first-class record with 9714 runs, including 27 centuries. He also scored 4126 runs in List A cricket.

While Manhas’s ascension may have come as a surprise, he’s not new to cricket administration. Towards the fag end of his playing career, Manhas, a middle-order batter, returned to Jammu and Kashmir, where he played for a season before switching to a career in cricket administration. He was part of the sub-committee formed by the BCCI to run the cricket affairs at the Jammu and Kashmir Cricket Association (JKCA).

Besides cricket administration, Manhas has been working as a coach with several teams, including Kings XI Punjab, Royal Challengers Bengaluru, and Gujarat Titans. He has also worked as a consultant for Bangladesh’s U-19 men’s cricket team.