Abhishek Dalmiya is the chairman of the Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB), one of the most influential state cricket bodies in India. He has been appointed as the BCCI representative to the Indian Premier League Governing Council, replacing Mamon Majumdar of the Cricket Association of Mizoram. 

Dalmiya has been serving as the president of CAB for the last two years since February 2020. He is expected to leave his post as the CAB president as he takes up his new position in the IPL GC amidst speculations that Sourav Ganguly will make a return to CAB after vacating his post as the president of BCCI. 

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Who is Abhishek Dalmiya? 

Abhishek Dalmiya is the son of the former president of the BCCI and the ICC Jagmohan Dalmiya. Although not of Bengali origin, the Dalmiyas have lived in Kolkata for a long time and have multiple businesses based in West Bengal. He is also the younger brother to Vaishali Dalmiya, the former Trinamool Congres MLA from the Bally constituency in Howrah, West Bengal.

He became the youngest CAB president ever when he took up the reigns of Bengal cricket in February 2020 along with Sourav Ganguly’s brother Snehasish Ganguly, who has been serving as the joint secretary of CAB. Snehasish is a former Bengal cricketer. 

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He is believed to be a close aide of the former BCCI president Sourav Ganguly and his tenure in the CAB began when Ganguly became the BCCI president. Even though Dalmiya’s tenure as the CAB president ended in 2021, it was extended after CAB went to the Supreme Court of India seeking revisions of some guidelines of the Lodha committee. 

As per the Loda Committee’s recommendations and the revised constitution of the CAB, a person can serve as office-bearer in state cricket bodies for six years back-to-back.