Veteran cricket administrator Jagmohan Dalmiya was on Monday "unanimously elected" president of the Board of Control for Cricket in India but the N. Srinivasan camp "suffered a huge setback" with the rival faction's Anurag Thakur beating Sanjay Patel for the post of secretary at the BCCI's Annual General Meeting, according to the PTI. Barring Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association chief Thakur's "surprise" win, ruling camp loyalists "swept the elections for the other posts at the much-postponed AGM, where Srinivasan himself could not contest" for the president's post owing to a Supreme Court directive. Jharkhand Cricket Association's Amitabha Chodhary was elected the joint secretary, beating Goa's Chetan Desai, belonging to the anti-Srinivasan faction, while Haryana's Anirudh Choudhary won the treasurer's position by defeating Rajiv Shukla. The road for Dalmiya was cleared after Pawar "failed to get a proposer from east zone, prompting the Maratha strongman to pull out of the race." BJP leader Thakur reportedly "won by just one vote over Srinivasan loyalist Patel, a scenario unlikely to have emerged had there not been cross-voting during the election process" (PTI, 3/2). REUTERS' Amlan Chakraborty reported Dalmiya, who headed the ICC from '97-00 and was named BCCI president the following year, is "widely credited for turning India into cricket's financial powerhouse and the most influential member of the sport's global governing body" (REUTERS, 3/2). The PTI reported in a separate piece suspended Rajasthan Cricket Association Deputy President Mehmood Abdi has alleged that Srinivasan "committed contempt of court by participating" in the AGM. Abdi, the permanent representative of RCA in BCCI, claimed that "despite being asked to stay away from the AGM by the Supreme Court, Srinivasan participated in the proceedings." Srinivasan had apologized last week to the Supreme Court for "attending a BCCI working committee meeting in spite of a court order asking him to stay away" from BCCI affairs until his "conflict of interest" charges were cleared (PTI, 3/2).
