At 11 pm on October 6, home minister Amit Shah hosted the who’s who of the Indian cricket administration at his official residence in New Delhi. This occurred precisely one week after prime minister Narendra Modi’s speech at the National Games opening ceremony in Ahmedabad on September 29 during which he proclaimed that sports federations were no longer governed by political families under his leadership.
Accordingly, there were hopes that the conference would bring about the end of the dynastic control of BJP families in line with the prime minister’s address from a week earlier. Also on the agenda for the meeting were the appointment of the new Indian Premier League chairman and the names of officebearers of the Board of Control for Cricket in India.
Stalwarts of the Indian cricket administration were in attendance, including union sports minister Anurag Thakur, his brother and BCCI treasurer Arun Dhumal, former BCCI president N Srinivasan, Congress party member and political middleman Rajeev Shukla, Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, former Indian skipper and current BCCI president Sourav Ganguly, IPL chairman Brijesh Patel, former BCCI secretary Niranjan Shah, and co-host and current BCCI secretary Jay Shah.
With so many luminaries sitting together, there was no time to waste in reaching a consensus. However, that’s precisely what didn’t happen after spending two hours inside the house of India’s second most powerful figure. According to insiders, the only decision that everyone was sure about was that the “dadagiri of the Prince of Kolkata has ended for sure”.
Yes, it was clear in almost everyone’s mind that Ganguly’s administrative tenure had ended bitterly, mirroring the end of his cricketing career almost a decade ago. The big boss inside assured everyone who left at midnight, or 1 am, that the “remainder of the decisions would be transmitted in a day or two before the filing of nominations in Mumbai”.
What sealed Ganguly’s fate?
As the meeting got underway, according to insiders, former BCCI president Srinivasan attacked Ganguly for defaming the richest cricket body in the world. The main thrust of Srinivasan’s statement was that “never in the history of Indian cricket” had a president been perceived as “backing his own brand rather than endorsing the game of cricket”.
The Tamil Nadu cement king and owner of IPL team Chennai Super Kings didn’t stop there. He declared that there was “no way he or his entire group would ever support Ganguly for the top post again”.
It should be noted that since Ganguly was elected president in October 2019, the biggest criticism levelled at him has been that he sacrificed BCCI interest in order to boost his personal brand. It’s no secret that Ganguly was the first BCCI president to be photographed advocating different products, which constituted conflict of interest for any president.
But when he endorsed the online gaming app My11Circle, he went over the line – even though the Indian cricket board signed a deal with another gaming website, Dream XI, to serve as Team India’s primary sponsor. Ganguly’s choice to support a contentious company allowed virtually all present and former Indian players, including Virat Kohli, to enter the industry of endorsing questionable brands that engage in financial activities. In November 2020, in response to a complaint made by a cricket fan, the Madurai bench of the Madras High Court even served notices to Ganguly and Kohli.
It goes without saying that practically all the current cricketers, including captain Rohit Sharma, have been in at least one ad for a gaming company. This has undoubtedly damaged cricket’s reputation in the wake of the acrimonious spot-fixing battle that took place in the Supreme Court’s corridors and resulted in the BCCI’s constitution being changed in 2016.
Not acting in the manner of a president
BCCI insiders also mention several other allegations against Ganguly that contributed to his so-called “unceremonious exit”.
There were rumours that Ganguly had abused his authority as BCCI president by attending Team India selection committee meetings to pick the national teams. Clearly, this was against the BCCI’s constitution and the notion of a “free and fair” selection procedure. According to information from one of these meetings, a selector stated to the secretary's office that even though Ganguly didn’t meddle in team selection, it was “intimidating”.
The president is not permitted to participate in selection committee meetings, according to the BCCI constitution. Instead, the secretary, now Jay Shah, is in charge of convening these meetings.
The result was that the cricket world soon saw an ugly spat between Ganguly and Kohli, then captain of Team India. Despite being one of the most successful captains, Kohli was removed from the ODI captaincy and then stepped down as Test captain.
It raises the question of whether Ganguly played a part in Kohli’s sacking. The matter came to such a point that Ganguly, a former captain, was called a “liar” by the then sitting India captain.
After Kohli, it was the turn of Bengal wicketkeeper Wriddhiman Saha to add more humiliation for Ganguly by claiming he had been assured of a place in the Indian Test team as long as Ganguly was BCCI president. Saha’s claims were enough to put the former skipper in a spot. The question was whether Ganguly crossed his brief by directly interfering in selection matters.
Last but not least, it was Ganguly’s proximity to former BCCI and ICC chief Shashank Manohar that was unacceptable to any of the factions within the board. It was not long ago that Shashank had been blamed by almost all the BCCI officials for “compromising” BCCI interests for personal gain.
Cricketer replacing cricketer
Those interested in cricket history would remember that Ganguly checkmated Karnataka strongman and former India player Brijesh Patel in the 2019 BCCI president election.
Patel was a shoo-in until the very last hour before nominations were filed. But Ganguly apparently played a clever game with the governing BJP by promising to join the party before the crucial Bengal assembly election.
The day after Ganguly’s unanimous election as BCCI president, many a headline proclaimed that the “Prince of Kolkata is ready to be BJP’s face in Bengal”. But nothing of the sort happened, as Ganguly knew well that without the support of West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee, it was almost impossible for him to become the president of the Cricket Association of Bengal.
On the other hand, Patel continued to sulk despite getting the chairmanship of the lucrative IPL. But now, he stands successful, as he has ensured that his close friend and 1983 World Cup winning team hero Roger Binny is set to be elected unopposed as the next president.
However, people close to Ganguly offer different reasons for how things have played out. An insider suggested, “Last time, there was an election in Bengal. This time, there’s an election in Karnataka soon. That’s why the BJP is making this smart switch.”
But no one in the BCCI is buying this theory.
Having finished the meeting at Shah senior’s residence, the next meeting – or assembly of all the BCCI’s important names – was called on October 10 at the Trident Hotel in Mumbai. The agenda was nothing else but to sign the nomination papers of those lucky members chosen to be the next BCCI officials.
There were about 10 to 15 BCCI members signing nominations when Ganguly was given the option to become IPL chairman by replacing Patel. Ganguly didn’t give it a second thought and rejected it straight away. The discussion and signing of papers went on till as late as 3.30 am.
Anyway, he was still given time until the next morning, October 11, to change his mind. But Ganguly refused to take the bait, which was “humiliation” in his own words. The only thing he was apparently willing to accept was the chairmanship of the ICC – and that was unacceptable to others.
So, Arun Dhumal got the green light to file his nomination. Modi’s vision of freeing sports federations from dynastic rule got another blow.
Ganguly’s legacy?
When Ganguly took over as BCCI’s first player-president, there were a lot of expectations from all quarters.
Cricketers were expecting a better understanding of workload and their working relationships with the BCCI, and there was a demand to strengthen domestic cricket.
However, nothing of the sort happened during Ganguly’s three-year tenure. In fact, domestic cricket is now completely in the doldrums. It suffered the most during the Covid pandemic, while cash-rich tournaments like the IPL went on as scheduled in the UAE.
In the matter related to increasing former players’ pensions, there was not much that Ganguly contributed on that front either. Most of the efforts were made by Shah junior as the pension was nearly doubled. Ganguly was rather busy increasing his personal wealth by taking more and more endorsements using his BCCI platform.
His proximity to a certain businessman-turned-journalist didn’t go down too well because that so-called journalist used his position to send threatening messages to wicketkeeper Wriddhiman Saha. The whole of the BCCI stood up to this journalist’s arrogance and were eager to permanently ban such characters from cricket. But again, it was Ganguly who ensured his “dear friend” only got a two-year ban.
Ganguly did not propose the name of Roger Binny as his successor, as is the normal practice. In fact, he was the last one to leave the BCCI office after the nomination process ended.
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