Mumbai: Demaji Saikia, an unusual person, derived from Assam, has beautifully built his career to a situation where he serves in Indian cricket in one of the best-ever positions—the Secretary of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) office. He replaced Jay Shah, who became ICC chairman, so the coming of Saikia will surely remain in history both for Indian cricket and his native state, Assam.
Through his cricketing career, he might have had a short period, but it was a direct result of his persistent love for it. As a brilliant wicketkeeper-batsman, he played for Assam in four first-class matches between 1990 and 1991. He made 53 runs with an average of 8.83, including a high score of 54, and he also caught 8 and made 1 stumping. Because of the missed chances on the field of cricket, he turned to different paths where he left a trace.
Being a former player, he later entered into law and had a successful career as a lawyer. His birth took place at the Gauhati High Court when he started the legal profession at the age of 28. Through this journey as a beneficiary of sports quotas, he was able to accumulate skills, and at the same time, he gave back to society by working with organisations like the Northern Frontier Railways and the Reserve Bank of India. His brilliant legal skills and determination let him go up the ladder to become Advocate General and the Chief Legal Adviser to the Assam Government, where he worked under the current CM, Himanta Biswa Sarma.
In 2016, he came back to cricket but in a different form when he was elected as one of the vice presidents of the Assam Cricket Association (ACA) under Sarma’s leadership. All the hard work and dedication to the sport helped him also become the AC Secretary in 2019. Scott Tennis played the main role in Saikia’s acumen as a good administrator and organiser, and thus, he established a reputation for ACA.
Saikia, along with BCCI President Roger Binny, attended his diploma ceremony as he was appointed as the new Secretary of BCCI. The meeting was convened to discuss India’s performance in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy match against Australia, which was attended by captain Rohit Sharma & coach Gautam Gambhir, who gave their inputs.
His career of 55 years that depicts the blend of cricketing, legal, and administrative expertise is just exceptional. His changes and representation have proven that he was entirely capable of dealing with such a complicated position as the BCCI Secretary post is. Furthermore, he has also gone down in history as the very first Assamese to hold such a prestigious position in Indian cricket, which of course has brought a lot of honour to his native land.
By means of the combination of passion and professionalism, Devajit Saikia is taking a safe step to embark on a better and future chapter in the sport of Indian cricket administration. His varied advancements state him as an emblematic figure of tenacity and marksmanship, making him the perfect person to charge one of the most important governing bodies of the sport.