The Valley has lost a voice in Jammu and Kashmir Cricket Association’s governing body as all the three members in the panel constituted by the Board of Control for Cricket in India to look after its affairs are from Jammu.

Of the three members, two are BJP leaders.

The BCCI has appointed BJP spokesman Anil Gupta as administrator and BJP chief spokesman Sunil Sethi as legal expert of the sub-committee tasked to take care of J&K cricket. Cricketer Mithun Manhas has been appointed as a member. All three are from Jammu.

The development has come amid growing allegations that Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government was removing Kashmiris from key positions to pursue the alleged goal of changing the Muslim majority character of the region.

Gupta, a retired army brigadier, defended the BCCI’s decision and said these were not political appointments. “Earlier it used to be Farooq Abdullah, his party, family, his relatives, his friends. Then came (Imran Raza) Ansari and his family. This was a family-run business. We are not political appointees. We have been appointed by BCCI, which is a non-political body,” Gupta told The Telegraph.

Former chief minister Farooq Abdullah headed the JKCA for a long time and is accused of misappropriation of funds of the association.

Ansari was a minister in the People’s Democratic Party-BJP coalition government and was appointed JKCA chief in 2016.

Gupta said a Kashmiri cricketer, Majid Dar, is also part of their team and will look after developments related to cricket in Kashmir. But sou-rces said Dar is not a member of the high-profile committee and will have to report to the three-member panel.

A BCCI statement said the Gupta-led sub-committee will work under the supervision of the committee consisting of president Sourav Ganguly, secretary Jay Shah, treasurer Arun Dhumal and vice-president Rajeev Shukla.

Sources said Gupta got a call urging him to head the J&K panel from Board secretary Jay Shah, the son of union home minister Amit Shah.