Mithun Manhas, new BCCI president who came in from the cold

The roll of honour for BCCI presidents in recent times reads: Sourav Ganguly, Roger Binny, and a certain Mithun Manhas. The latter — it’s no longer a secret — is the only candidate to have filed a nomination for the hot seat in the world's wealthiest cricket board, and is all set to take over at the AGM next Sunday, 28 September.

The question for a majority of cricket fans in the country has been: Mithun Manhas who? The candidature of the 45-year-old Kashmiri, who was a prolific batter and captain for Delhi as well as Jammu & Kashmir towards the latter stages of his career, meets the government diktat of having former athletes at the helm of national sports federations — but only just. It may not be as important that he failed to earn the India cap, but he certainly managed to be in the right place at the right time.

Once the decks were cleared for the dapper Manhas on Sunday, he and the BCCI top brass headed for Ahmedabad, the new informal headquarters of Indian cricket.

The discussion about what clinched the deal for Manhas during the high-powered BCCI conclave in the capital on Saturday remains a matter of conjecture as the final electoral list had the following names to choose from — former incumbent Ganguly (back heading the Cricket Association of Bengal), Harbhajan Singh (Punjab) and former Indian spinner Raghuram Bhat (Karnataka). Any outlier, if there was one, was former Saurashtra captain Jaydev Shah — son of veteran administrator Niranjan Shah — but not Manhas.

What was it, then, that clinched the deal in favour of the middle-order batter, a veteran of 157 first class and 130 List A matches for Delhi and Jammu and Kashmir? While those in the know vouch that it was not an easy decision (with the BCCI seeking legal opinion as well), an educated guess is that the powers that be wanted to use this opportunity to project a first-ever candidate from the Kashmir Valley, where Manhas has done a commendable job as director of the BCCI-appointed sub-committee to look after the game for four years.

Under his guidance, the cricketing structure in Srinagar and Jammu got a facelift as new pitches were laid, which aided the senior men’s team in reaching the quarter-finals of the Ranji Trophy last season, stunning top teams like Mumbai and Baroda on the way. While the Union Territory has thrown up odd talents at the national level like a Pervez Rasool or fast bowlers like Umran Malik in recent years, there has been no representation in BCCI officialdom worth talking about.

‘’His cricketing background has helped,’’ BCCI vice-president Rajeev Shukla said of Manhas. Shukla, incidentally, was acting as interim president once Binny stepped down in July on completing 70 years, a cut-off age as per the Lodha Committee recommendations.

Known for his street smarts, Manhas scored 9,714 runs in a first-class career spanning from 1997 to 2016, and 4,126 runs in List A matches. It spoke volumes of his man management skills that he led a star-studded Delhi side with strong personalities like Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Aakash Chopra and the upcoming Shikhar Dhawan and Virat Kohli in the ranks. 

Manhas’ name is often referred to in the context of Kohli’s journey as he was Delhi captain when Kohli lost his father on the morning of a Ranji Trophy fixture and still went on to play the game. Manhas advised Kohli to head home and be with the family, but the youngster insisted on playing, and the rest is history. 

An added plus for Manhas could be his hands-on knowledge as a player and coach in the IPL ecosystem. While he has played 55 matches in all for three franchises between 2008 and 2014 (Chennai Super Kings, Delhi Daredevils and now defunct Pune Warriors), he later took up coaching roles for Punjab Kings and Gujarat Titans, where his friends Sehwag and Ashish Nehra were coaches.

A man with in-depth knowledge of India’s domestic system, some administrative experience and an IPL player and coach. It doesn’t look too bad, but then he has some big shoes to fill.