Old guards make their presence felt at BCCI headquarters

Late in the morning, former Board president N. Srinivasan arrived at the headquarters along with former secretary Niranjan Shah and former IPL chairman Rajiv Shukla.

Former India captain Sourav Ganguly (L), former BCCI president N. Srinivasan, former IPL chairman Rajiv Shukla and Jay Shah at the BCCI headquarters in Mumbai on Monday.

What was supposed to be an ordinary nomination-filing day turned into a big-ticket affair with the old guards back at the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) headquarters in Mumbai after quite a long time.

Late in the morning, former Board president N. Srinivasan arrived at the headquarters along with former secretary Niranjan Shah and former IPL chairman Rajiv Shukla. A few minutes later, former India captain Sourav Ganguly — who was the consensus candidate for the president’s position — could be seen, along with Jay Shah and Arun Singh Dhumal.

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As per the notice sent by the Electoral Officer to the full members of the BCCI, the time for filing nomination was from 11 am till 3 pm.

After waiting till 2.45pm for the arrival of electoral officer N. Gopalaswami, the members handed over the nomination forms to the BCCI legal team. Gopalaswami was absent from the venue and wasn't available for a comment.

“We were a bit surprised to not see the Electoral Officer till that long. But the guidelines said that the process had to be completed by 3pm, so we had to hand over the forms to the legal team,” one of the candidates said.