- Monday, March 10, 2025
By: Shubham Ghosh
A major political row has erupted over the conclusion of the term of Sourav Ganguly, the president of the Indian cricket board, with the opposition Trinamool Congress (TMC) alleging that the former national captain was made the chief of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) so that he could be pitted against Mamata Banerjee, the head of the TMC and the chief minister of the state of West Bengal.
Ganguly belongs to Bengal and is arguably the state’s tallest icon.
Madan Mitra, a senior member of the state’s ruling party and a local lawmaker, said in an interview with India Today that the country’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which is led by prime minister Narendra Modi, made Ganguly the president of the BCCI to create a wave in favour of itself in Bengal which it has been aiming to win for a long time.
“BJP made Sourav Ganguly BCCI president to create a wave that Sourav is with them and will be a prospective CM face for BJP. Sourav Ganguly did not want to become president by himself,” Mitra said.
He then said that Ganguly did not join the BJP and paid the price by losing the post of the BCCI chief.
“The BJP’s logic is to be with us or we will arrest you. It is Sourav Ganguly, so they cannot arrest him. So, they will remove him. Will they impose emergency when people reject them,” he asked.
Sankar Ghosh, a state lawmaker from the BJP, hit back at the TMC asking why Wriddhiman Saha, another national cricketer from Bengal, left the state to play for the state of Tripura. He also questioned why Swapna Barman, another athlete from Bengal, decided to represent the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh.
Both Tripura and Madhya Pradesh are ruled by Modi’s BJP.
“TMC needs to see how the ranking of Bengal in national games has slipped,” Ghosh said.
Ganguly, who is set to become a former chief of the BCCI soon, reportedly ending his tenure at the top of the BCCI on a disappointing note, said an Indo-Asian News Service report.
At the upcoming annual general meeting of the BCCI on October 18, most of the members of the outgoing administration of the BCCI are set to find berths in the new administration, barring Ganguly and Jayesh George, the joint secretary.
On Tuesday (12), former India all-rounder Roger Binny filed nomination for the post of the president and is likely to get elected unopposed as Ganguly’s successor since nobody else has emerged as a challenger.
Generally, the outgoing president of the board proposes the name of the next but according to the IANS report, the 50-year-old Ganguly was so dejected that he didn’t follow the practice with Binny, a member of India’s World Cup-winning team of 1983.
It also cited a Cricbuzz report saying that Ganguly was to himself at the board’s office on Tuesday while others were involved in the nomination procedure. Jay Shah, the son of Indian home minister Amit Shah, who is also the second-most powerful leader in the BJP, is the board’s secretary and will continue to be so.
“He clearly looked upset, disappointed and dejected,” said a member who was present at the BCCI office.
The former India captain was reportedly offered chairmanship of the Indian Premier League but he politely declined, saying he could not head a committee in the BCCI after leading the body.
Ganguly was the last one to leave the BCCI office after the nomination process came to an end, swiftly getting into his car and rolling up the glasses of the window.
It is to be seen what lies in store for Ganguly next.
