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The tall, broad shouldered figure with silver hair and perennial half-smile is, to habitues of the Cricket Club of India in Bombay, a seemingly permanent fixture of one of India's oldest, and most prestigious, cricket clubs.

As president of the CCI, he has been largely responsible for helping the club, and its home ground the Brabourne Stadium, survive the onslaught of its larger, more glitzy neighbour, the Wankhede Stadium.

And via a succession of high profile posts in the Indian cricket administration, Raj Singh has played in his part in helping shape the development of the game in this country, as cricket moved away from the propah ambience of white-clad gentlemen cricketers into a highly commercialised era dominated by hard-headed professionals, both on and off the field.

It was perhaps inevitable that Raj Singh, in course of his career, step into the hottest, and most-high profile, cricketing post in the country - the presidentship of the Board of Control for Cricket in India. And it is a measure of the esteem in which he is held by his fellow administrators that his election to the prestigious post was unopposed.

Winning the prize post is, however, merely a prelude. Dungarpur presides over the country's cricket administration at a crucial time. A time of transition, when the national team, after a string of disastrous defeats under one leader, has pinned its faith on a younger, more dynamic leader to lead it out of the depths. At the same time, with television ratings and sponsorship money increasingly dictating the where-when-who-why of cricket, the need for balanced administration was never greater.

Dungarpur, those who have known him well and closely will attest, has it in him to be a tough, balanced cricketing boss at this crucial juncture.

This, then, the man who will appear, live, on the Rediff Chat on October 25 at 2000 hours IST (1030 hours EDT).

His live appearance will provide fans of Indian cricket worldwide to grill him on the state of Indian cricket today, and his plans for tomorrow.

Dungarpur, for his part, has the reputation of one who speaks his mind with no fear of the consequences.

So between the fans and the BCCI president, it promises to be a session to remember.