Could Saurav Ganguly be a successor to Anurag Thakur’s BCCI President Chair?
The Supreme Court’s decision on Monday, to remove Anurag Thakur from the president’s post for not complying with the Lodha Committee recommendations, has tasked the current BCCI administration to find a suitable replacement.
Currently, the SC bench headed by Chief Justice TS Thakur has said that the working of BCCI will be looked after by a committee of administrators and requested senior advocate Fali S Nariman and senior advocate Gopal Subramanian, who was assisting in the matter as amicus curaie, to assist the court in nominating persons of impeccable integrity as the members in the committee of administrators. Nariman and Subramanian are expected to complete the task in two weeks and the matter for passing the direction for nominating the persons in committee of administrators is set to be taken up on 19 January.
Gopal Subramanium and Fali Nariman are given the responsibilities to suggest names for an interim Committee and till then, the two senior vice-presidents of the BCCI will run the Board affairs. Senior-most Vice President of BCCI will act as President and Joint Secretary will act as Secretary.
However, the need to appoint a successor for the top BCCI position is both urgent and important as there are several important decisions pending, including that of TV rights of the IPL, which is a major tournament and revenue source for the board. An article in the Economic Times said that any delay in this appointment will not just erode the credibility but also the viability of the IPL, which is scheduled to begin in a few months.
Even as the SC-appointed panel starts working on the transition plan, one of the names doing the rounds is former India captain and current Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB) head, Sourav Ganguly. Ganguly is considered a suitable candidate as he has the administrative experience with CAB, as well as is credible in the cricket circles, both in India and internationally.
However, as of now there is no clarity on Sourav Ganguly’s position as he is not a vice-president of the BCCI. Ganguly has a three-year tenure in office in CAB and hence could be ineligible for the post, according to PTI.
But there are several reports both suggesting and endorsing Ganguly’s ascendancy. According to an India Today report, Sourav Ganguly seems to be the front-runner to replace Thakur. Even the Economic Times suggests that Ganguly could be asked to run the BCCI with the help of other cricketer-administrators.
Meanwhile, the BCCI has to nominate one among its five vice-presidents as the acting chief. At the moment, veteran Delhi and District Cricket Association (DDCA) official CK Khanna, who is vice-president from Central Zone and VP for third time, is the senior most. Apart from Khanna, there is Gautam Roy of Assam Cricket Association, who is in his second term as vice president and has been ACA president from early 2000 to 2015.