Mumbai: As predicted by The Telegraph back on May 12, Anurag Thakur will be the next president of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI).

Sunday's SGM is a formality as Thakur alone filed his nomination, at the Cricket Centre, on Saturday.

Again, as reported in these columns, all six affiliates from East nominated Thakur, the incumbent secretary.

Even one nomination would have done, but the tradition in the BCCI isn't any different from what is usually on view in most political parties.

Quite simply, it has to be unanimous. Even if some privately have reservations.

Ajay Shirke is set to succeed Thakur (a BJP MP) as the secretary. He's a former treasurer and trusted the most by immediate past president Shashank Manohar, now the International Cricket Council's first independent chairman.

Thakur by the way, will, remain the BCCI secretary till he convenes the SGM. Once convened, one of the vice-presidents would take the chair. Protocol is followed.

Only after that will Thakur resign as the secretary and the process of anointing him as the next president start.

At 41, Thakur should be the youngest to sit in the No.1 chair.

Shirke's appointment may not be at the SGM, but immediately afterwards. That's because the SGM has only been called to elect Manohar's successor as the BCCI president.

"I wouldn't like to say anything at all, not at this point in time," Shirke, back from the UK, told this Reporter on the eve of the SGM.