BCCI elevates Hemang Amin as interim CEO

Hemang Amin, chief operating officer of the IPL, has been named the interim chief executive officer of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI).

Published : Jul 14, 2020 00:07 IST , Mumbai

Heman Amin takes on the reins at a time when the BCCI, despite being forced to adopt the Supreme Court-directed administrative reforms, is going through an uncertain phase.

Heman Amin takes on the reins at a time when the BCCI, despite being forced to adopt the Supreme Court-directed administrative reforms, is going through an uncertain phase.

Hemang Amin, the chief operating officer of the Indian Premier League, has been appointed interim chief executive officer (CEO) of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI). Amin’s elevation was informed to the BCCI affiliates in an internal communication by BCCI secretary Jay Shah.

“As you might be aware, Mr. Rahul Johri who was the CEO, has resigned and is now no longer with BCCI. We have appointed Mr. Hemang Amin, COO, IPL as the interim CEO of the BCCI,” Shah wrote in an email to all the BCCI affiliates late on Monday evening, accessed by Sportstar .

“I request you to extend all possible co-operation to Mr. Amin in his new role,” it added.

Shah’s communication also formalised that Johri’s controversial term as the first CEO of the BCCI came to an abrupt end last week. Besides being cleared by the court-appointed committee of administrators of an alleged sexual harassment charge during the #MeToo movement last year, Johri had fallen off the radar from the new office-bearers.

While he had resigned in April, it was understood that the apex council had rejected his resignation before the secretary released him of his duties last week.

Amin will thus succeed Johri, albeit in an interim role, with the richest sports body in the country and the richest cricket board in the world going through a tumultous phase. He has taken on the reins at a time when the BCCI, despite being forced to adopt the Supreme Court-directed administrative reforms, is going through an uncertain phase.

Soon after the rejigged apex council took charge after the election in October 2019, the BCCI has seen its chief financial officer Santosh Rangnekar and vice-president Mahim Verma resign from their posts. In the next couple of months, unless the Supreme Court agrees to hear the BCCI’s appeal against reforms, the Board could soon be without a president and secretary, with Sourav Ganguly and Shah, respectively, being forced into serving a cooling-off period at the end of July as per existing rules.

Moreover, Amin will also have to walk the thin line with the International Cricket Council (ICC) when it comes to getting the tax sops for organising the next year’s T20 World Cup. And most importantly, he will have to continue to work on the BCCI's plan of staging the Indian Premier League’s postponed 2020 edition in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic.

Having already spent a decade in the BCCI office would certainly come in handy for Amin at such a critical time. After short stints at the Bombay Stock Exchange and Deutsche Bank, Amin joined the IPL operations team in June 2010. He was appointed the COO soon after Sundar Raman resigned in November 2015.