From Cricketer to Administrator...! Devajit Lon Saikia appointed a the Secretary of the BCCI

Guwahati: Good news for cricket fans of Assam. Devajit Lon Saikia, a former cricketer and cricket administrator from the state, has been appointed as the secretary of the BCCI, the richest and most powerful cricket board in the world. At the end of the Special General Meeting today, the BCCI officially announced his name as the Secretary. As per the Board's constitution, there was a stipulated time of 45 days to fill up the vacancies and within this time, nominations were invited for holding elections.

Accordingly, Devajit Saikia filed his nomination for the post of secretary. However, Devajit Saikia has been officially elected unopposed to the post of secretary as no other candidate has filed nomination for the post. Now the son of Assam will replace Jay Shah in this powerful position of the BCCI. Jay Shah was appointed as the ICC chairman in December last year.

Subsequently, Debjit Balika was appointed as the interim secretary. Therefore, it was almost certain that he would get a permanent appointment in this post. Prabhutej Bhatia has been elected as the new treasurer of the board. It is to be noted that Devajit Saikia, who holds this powerful position in the BCCI, which is known as the world's most powerful and richest cricket board, was also a cricketer before.

First-class cricketer Devajit Saikia played 4 matches in the Ranji Trophy for Assam in the 1990-91 season. He batted in the middle order as a wicketkeeper-batter. Devajit Saikia first came to the limelight as a cricketer in 1984 with the CK Nayudu Trophy, the BCCI's most important tournament at the junior level. This was followed by an unbeaten 55 in his debut match for the Assam under-15 team in the Vijay Merchant Trophy.

Then in 1987, with a spectacular century against Odisha in the Under-17 Vijay Hazare Trophy, he made it to the Senior East Zone team and got a chance to play alongside star players like Sourav Ganguly. He made his Ranji Trophy debut in 1989. He retired from professional cricket at the age of 21.

After completing his law education, he started working as an advocate in the Gauhati High Court in 1997. In 2021, Saikia was appointed as the Advocate General of Assam, becoming the youngest lawyer to hold the position. 

After this role, he was elected as the Vice President of ACA in 2016. Then in 2019, Devajit Saikia was appointed to the post of secretary of ACA for the first time and from here he was elected as the joint secretary of BCCI in 2022.