Anurag Thakur has been unanimously elected as the second youngest BCCI president in what was a smooth change of guard despite the board going through a rough weather lately. The 41 year old replaced Shashank Manohar who quit the position to become the ICC chairman. Senior BCCI vice-president CK Khanna chaired the Special General Meeting held on Sunday and announced his name for the job. The group also chose Ajay Shirke as the BCCI secretary.
BCCI, the world's richest and most powerful cricket body was left without a head to offer directions after Manohar exited from the spot after a mere seven months of tenure. Thakur got signatures of all six east zone units in his BCCI presidential nomination, making his way to become the 34th president of the influential cricket body. The Cricket Association of Bengal, Assam CA, Tripura CA, NCC and Jharkhand SCA signed his nomination papers even though the rules required only one unit to nominate the name of the presidential candidate. He is also the third person backed by East Zone to be elected to the top post during the 2014-1017 period.
The three time BJP member of the Parliament, Thakur has taken up the responsibility at a time when the verdict of the Supreme Court remains in the offing and the possible implementation of the Lodha Committee's recommendation. The next hearing has been set for June 29 and things do not particularly look rosy for the cricket body. Talking about the challenges of taking over as BCCI chief, Thakur said, "Where there is a challenge, there is opportunity. I would like to state my example only when I took over as the HPCA chief at a young age of 25, that time I inherited only seven chairs, one iron cupboard and a typewriter. But within five years, we built and international stadium in Dharamsala." Thakur said the BCCI is not running away from the Lodha recommendations, saying "we need to understand what is practical to implement."
