Stand-in cricket control board president Jagmohan Dalmiya already has a headache — no one is queuing up to replace the departed BCCI secretary Sanjay Jagdale or treasurer Ajay Shirke — besides the many others he has inherited, even if temporarily, from Narayan-swami Srinivasan.
Dalmiya, appointed at Sunday’s emergency working committee meeting in Chennai to hold the BCCI president’s place after Srinivasan stepped aside, was initially optimistic of at least getting Shirke to change his mind, but that has not transpired.
And the Tuesday deadline the interim BCCI president had set has run out.
Though Dalmiya had said on Sunday he would carry out the functions of secretary and treasurer if necessary, clearly there has been some rethinking on the matter and he now appears keen to find replacements.
The problem is, no one is coming forward to fill up the two key executive posts.Joint secretary Anurag Thakur would have been the logical choice, but the BJP member of Parliament and Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association president has said no on the grounds that the upcoming Parliamentary elections next year would not permit him time for the work involved.
Similar reasons have come from the others reportedly approached for the two jobs — the major problem being the short-term nature of the posts (till the next elections at the Board’s annual general meeting in September) —and the circumstances in which the vacancies came about.
With Jagdale and Shirke having resigned on moral grounds and Srinivasan forced into a sabbatical over the probe into the spot-fixing and betting scandal around the most recent version of the Indian Premier League, Dalmiya needs to fill up the secretary’s post fast.
This is because the BCCI secretary will chair the investigation that two former judges of the Madras high court have already been named to.
Meanwhile, the probe given to its Anti-Corruption and Security Unit chief Ravi Sawani by the BCCI into the spot-fixing issue was completed and handed in on Wednesday.
And that only adds to Dalmiya’s problems as he now has to ensure that the BCCI’s probe panel begins its functioning as early as possible, for which he will probably turn to his former stalwarts in the Board in the absence of any immediate alternatives.