Who is Mithun Manhas, the former Delhi cricketer set to become next BCCI president?

A middle-order batter, Mithun Manhas, belonged to a generation when Indian cricket was dominated by Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly, and VVS Laxman. Despite being one of the consistent performers for Delhi in his long domestic career, Manhas couldn’t break into the Indian team, often proving that he was one of the many cricketers born in the wrong era.

But on Sunday, life came full circle for the 45-year-old Manhas, as he outclassed some of the top names of Indian cricket to become the next president of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI). While the formality would be completed next week during the Annual General Meeting, Manhas was the lone applicant for the president’s post and is set to be chosen unopposed.

Though Manhas’ elevation to the top post came as a surprise to many, he is not new to cricket administration. For the last four years, he has been part of a BCCI-formed sub-committee, which has been administering the Jammu and Kashmir Cricket Association (JKCA).

Under his guidance, the cricketing structure in Srinagar and Jammu got a facelift. New pitches were laid, which aided the Jammu and Kashmir senior men’s team in reaching the quarterfinals of the Ranji Trophy last season, stunning top teams like Mumbai and Baroda on its way.

Mithun Manhas of Delhi in action during the Ranji Trophy cricket match against Himachal Pradesh held at Arun Jaitley Stadium (then known as Ferozhah Kotla), New Delhi, from November 27 to 30, 2002.
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RAJEEV BHATT / THE HINDU ARCHIVES

A veteran of 157 First Class and 130 List A matches for Delhi and Jammu and Kashmir, Manhas told Sportstar earlier this year that his aim has been to ensure that youngsters taking up the sport are given ‘absolute support’ and are provided with the best of facilities. As he takes over the reins of the BCCI from Roger Binny, Manhas’ aim would be to put cricket and the players’ interests first.

Those who have seen Manhas since his formative years vouch for it. “It is in continuation of the BCCI’s policy now to have a player at the helm of the board. Mithun’s cricket and his administrative acumen are known to everybody, and I hope he will continue to contribute to the game with his ideas. He did good work in Jammu and Kashmir, and I hope he will do good for the players,” said former India cricketer Atul Wassan.

Though it won’t be an easy journey, for someone who has been a stabilising presence in the middle-order since his debut for Delhi in 1998, it will be all about resilience and grit.

Born in Jammu, Manhas moved to Delhi to play at the Under-16 level and then played for Delhi U-19 and eventually, the senior team, while also playing at the U-19 level for India.

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Throughout his journey, he has been a people’s person, and those who have tracked his journey insist that’s probably one of the reasons why he could successfully captain Delhi despite the team having some of the biggest names of Indian cricket around that time – including his old friends Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Aakash Chopra, and then-youngsters Shikhar Dhawan and Virat Kohli.

In fact, Manhas was Delhi captain when Kohli lost his father on the morning of a Ranji Trophy fixture and still went on to play the game. Manhas had asked Kohli to head home and be with the family, but as the youngster insisted on playing, Manhas gave in. And his close friends agree that Manhas has always backed young talents. In fact, in an interview, he had admitted that a youngster “needs to keep working on improving his game, and not wait till he gets to play for India…”

He practised what he preached. After moving to Delhi from Jammu, a young Manhas trained under the legendary Tarak Sinha at the city’s iconic Sonnet Cricket Club, where he learned the hard yards and eventually earned a place in the Delhi team, where he played for nearly a decade.

Though he later moved to Jammu and Kashmir as a player cum coach and spent a couple of seasons there and scored modest runs, the stint had its own share of controversies as well.

Manhas, second from right, was in New Delhi on Saturday for an informal meeting ahead of the BCCI Annual General Meeting.
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Special Arrangement

He had a fallout with a few J&K players, including Parvez Rasool, which resulted in him opting out of a Ranji Trophy game against Rajasthan in 2017. He later told this publication that he was unhappy with JKCA’s decision to appoint Rasool as the skipper. “I am not happy with the way he (Rasool) handled the team,” Manhas had said, alleging Rasool of creating a divide within the team.

However, with the state officials intervening, Manhas later made himself available for the season. But that was his last season as a professional player, and later, he took coaching roles with Punjab Kings and Gujarat Titans, where his old friends Sehwag and Ashish Nehra were at the helm as coaches.

However, a few years ago, when he took an administrative role at JKCA, Manhas ensured he was more hands-on with the job, and as he steps into a bigger role, those experiences would certainly count.

Published on Sep 21, 2025