BCCI president Sourav Ganguly is under the scanner once again, as senior journalists have questioned his alleged presence in the selection committee meetings held during his ongoing tenure at the helm of the Indian cricket board. Ganguly, it is being accused, has been sitting with the selection panel at every meeting and potentially exercising his […]
BCCI president Sourav Ganguly is under the scanner once again, as senior journalists have questioned his alleged presence in the selection committee meetings held during his ongoing tenure at the helm of the Indian cricket board.
Ganguly, it is being accused, has been sitting with the selection panel at every meeting and potentially exercising his control in influencing the decisions made by chief selector Chetan Sharma and his team.
This allegation was made by famous India Today journalist Vikrant Gupta during a discussion on an Aaj Tak show ‘Cricket Adda’. Raising the matter along with fellow journalist Nikhil Naz, Vikrant questioned Sourav Ganguly’s alleged presence at selection committee meetings.
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Sourav Ganguly has been BCCI president since late 2019. (Image Credits: AP)
Vikrant went on to question whether the idea behind Sourav Ganguly sitting in selection meetings is to exercise his control and powers to try and “undermine” the selectors, the captain and the coach of the Indian men’s team?
Naz, initially querying whether Ganguly does attend the selection committee meetings, said in no part of the world and in no cricket board a president is constitutionally allowed to attend meetings directly related to the selection of the team that takes the park.
Vikrant said there could be exceptions made for “big” decisions that may have to be taken but it can’t be a norm that a board president sits with the selection panel.
Naz gave the example of former India batter and ex selector Mohinder Amarnath, who resigned from his position back in 2012 signalling that the then BCCI president N Srinivasan is not letting him work with absolute freedom.
— Shivam Aks
(@AksShivam) January 31, 2022
This allegation has coincided with a period where Sourav Ganguly has been alternately accused of upholding an agenda against Virat Kohli. Kohli, who was unceremoniously sacked from ODI captaincy, either side of giving away the T20I and Test leadership posts himself, gave contrasting remarks to Ganguly’s in backdrop to his move after the T20 World Cup.
While Ganguly in an interview said he requested Kohli to reconsider the move to give up the T20I captaincy, Kohli said when he conveyed his stance to the board and the selectors he was “encouraged” in that direction.
Ganguly’s remarks, however, were echoed by Chetan Sharma when he announced the ODI team for the tour of South Africa, also clarifying that the reason behind sacking Kohli from 50-over captaincy was that they didn’t want two white-ball captains.
(@AksShivam)