The Assam wicketkeeper who quit cricket at 21 and now runs India's board
Devajit Saikia kept wicket for Assam in the Ranji Trophy, then walked away from professional cricket at 21 to concentrate on his studies. He became a lawyer, later Assam's Advocate General, and kept playing in lawyers' tournaments around the world. In 2025 he became secretary of the BCCI, India's cricket board.
Born in Guwahati on 19 April 1969 and nicknamed Lon, Saikia came up through Assam's age-group sides, starting with a school tournament in Lucknow in 1984. He made an unbeaten 55 on his under-15 debut in Jamshedpur, and a century against Orissa in 1987 won him a place in the East Zone under-17 team, alongside a young Sourav Ganguly, that took the national title in Kanpur. He reached Assam's senior Ranji squad as a wicketkeeper and middle-order batter, then gave up the professional game for economics degrees at Cotton College and a law degree in 1996.
Before law he held sports-quota jobs with the Northeast Frontier Railway and the Reserve Bank of India in Guwahati. From December 1997 he worked as a lawyer before the Gauhati High Court and went on to serve as an additional advocate general for Meghalaya and then Assam. In December 2018 he resigned a senior government legal post, because the Assam Cricket Association's rules at the time barred public officials from standing for office. In May 2021 he was appointed Advocate General of Assam.
Cricket never left him. He toured with Indian lawyers' teams to Sri Lanka, London and the West Indies, finished runner-up to Australia at the 2009 Lawyers' World Cup in Cambridge and London, and captained one of India's two sides at the Brisbane edition in 2015 to 2016.
Administration took over from 2003, at the century-old Gauhati Town Club, where he helped add academies in chess, boxing, football and cricket and joined a court petition that restored the city's Judges' Field to sporting use. A 2014 petition he filed over corruption and selection irregularities in the state association led to court-ordered reforms. As its secretary from 2019 he backed a club championship involving more than 300 clubs and new women's tournaments. After serving as the BCCI's joint secretary, he took over as secretary in January 2025, when Jay Shah left to chair the ICC, and was re-elected that September.
Source: Devajit Saikia
