With speculation growing over Ajit Agarkar’s future as chairman of the senior men’s selection committee, the BCCI chose to keep its cards close to its chest with secretary Devajit Saikia saying the board still had 15 days to decide on the matter.

Asked whether the BCCI had started looking at other options for the chairman’s position, Saikia said after the board’s 95th Annual General Meeting (AGM) on Friday: “Today, there has been no discussion about any individual. We still have 15 days to go. We will take a decision and in appropriate time, we will let you know.”

had reported in August that BCCI officials would meet Agarkar over a one-year extension after India’s tour of Sri Lanka amid differences with selectors over Rohit Sharma’s ODI future ahead of the 2027 ODI World Cup.

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Agarkar was appointed chairman of selectors in July 2023. During his tenure, India reached the final of the 2023 ODI World Cup before winning the 2024 T20 World Cup and the 2025 Champions Trophy. India also retained the T20 World Cup earlier this year.

Saikia said the BCCI remained confident that the men’s and women’s Asia Cup trophies would eventually reach its Mumbai office. India’s women refused to accept the Asia Cup trophy from Asian Cricket Council president Mohsin Naqvi after beating Sri Lanka in the final in Dubai last Sunday. Naqvi is also the Pakistan Cricket Board chairman and Pakistan’s interior minister. India’s men had taken the same position after winning the men’s Asia Cup last year.

“Asia Cup trophies, we hope it will come one day. I will not give you a timeline. But I can assure you that both the trophies will come and land up in this office in the BCCI at the Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai,” Saikia said.


The BCCI has increased the daily fees paid to domestic umpires, the first revision since 2017-18, and changed the way they will be graded and given matches.

“Since 2017-18, there was no revision of the fees of the umpires. So we have done a restructuring of their categories. Earlier there were four categories, A+, A, B and C. Now we have restructured it as A, B, C and D. All their fees per day has been enhanced substantially,” Saikia said.

Match referees will also receive higher fees.

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The board has also introduced a system under which an umpire’s performance will determine the matches he gets. At the end of every season, 10 umpires will move up a grade and 10 will move down based on their performance.


“Those who will be doing good, 10 umpires will be upgraded to the next level. Those umpires who are at the upper level, if they are not performing up to that level or they are a satisfactory level, they will be downgraded. 10 umpires will go up, 10 umpires will go down,” Saikia said.

Sports Act conundrum

Saikia said the BCCI will wait for a Central government notification before making any changes required to comply with the new Sports Act.

“Regarding the Sports Act, our stand is very clear. There are a lot of things which are yet to be done from the concerned authority. Once those exercises are completed, and once BCCI comes under the Sports Act, a particular notification has to be issued to make it a designated sport,” Saikia said.

“Till that time, we are not supposed to do anything. Whenever that notification comes, immediately, we will spring up in action. We will do our work as per the new rules and the rules framed here.”

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The BCCI’s position on the issue has also come up before the Supreme Court. Saikia said the board would explain its stand when the matter comes up again next month.

“So, as of today, there is nothing like that, which was mentioned in the Supreme Court that day. We will give the clarification on 27th of October, when the matter will be listed next time,” he said.