Ex-Indian captain Sourav Ganguly’s tenure as the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) President came to an end on Tuesday (October 18) after the Indian cricket’s governing body elected 1983 World Cup-winner Roger Binny as his successor.
Ganguly’s one-term stint began in 2019. The Indian cricket legend stayed in the job for three years in a period that was extremely eventful with the COVID-19 pandemic looming large over it and having major repercussions on how the board functioned.
The Good, bad, and the middle ground – Here is how Sourav Ganguly’s tenure as the BCCI chief will be remembered.
IPL media rights
BCCI made remarkable growth in Ganguly’s tenure as this year’s Indian Premier League (IPL) media rights auction was a major show of Strength. The cash-rich league’s television and streaming rights were bought for a remarkable figure of Rs. 48,390 crore making it the second most valuable (on a per match basis) league in the world behind the NFL.
Pink-Ball Test match
It was only one month after Ganguly took charge that India played its first-ever pink-ball Test match at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata. With the world embracing the change, BCCI had shown reluctance to do the same until Ganguly walked through the door and showed his forward-thinking approach to the cricketing sides of things. In Ganguly’s three-year stint, India played four day-night games in the longest format with three of them coming at home alongside the 2022 Adelaide Test.
Legends return
Not only did Ganguly himself become the BCCI President, his stint also saw some of the greatest players in Indian cricket history become a vital part of the system. Rahul Dravid was appointed as head coach of the senior men’s team while VVS Laxman took charge as the director of the National Cricket Academy (NCA) in Bengaluru
Bad
Virat Kohli captaincy saga
As much as the IPL media rights sale was a highlight of Ganguly’s tenure, the controversy regarding Virat Kohli’s ODI captaincy saga will be too. Ganguly’s appointment as the BCCI supremo had come with the promise of him being someone that will understand the players and work towards their well-being but the situation with Kohli was completely the opposite.
The BCCI President and Indian captain giving contradicting statements to each other in public was not a good look for the board. Many will defend the decision to change captains in white-ball cricket as the right one and Kohli himself admitted that in a press conference. However, a player of the stature of Kohli who has served Indian cricket so well deserved to be treated better and the situation should have been handled much better.
Women’s cricket
It’s ironic that Ganguly’s last day as the BCCI President comes on the day of the Women’s IPL (WIPL) being formally approved. While the men’s team continued to achieve new heights in Ganguly’s tenure, the same cannot be said for women’s cricket.
While the announcement of the WIPL is a welcome move, it is certainly something that should have happened long before, especially with Australia launching the Women’s Big Bash League (WBBL) in 2015 and England starting the Hundred in 2021. Even the West Indies’ Women Caribbean Premier League (WCPL) started in 2022 while Pakistan announced the Women’s Pakistan Super League (WPSL) a few days before BCCI’s announcement.
One must not forget that after their historic runner’s-up finish in the 2020 Women’s T20 World Cup, the Indian women’s team did not play a single international game for 364 days while most international women’s team had started to play top-level cricket after the COVID-19 lockdown long before the Women in Blue stepped on the field again.
There were also media reports stating that the Harmanpreet Kaur-led Indian side received their prize money from the 2020 T20 WC only 15 months later.
The debatable
IPL and COVID-19
The COVID-19 pandemic brought an unprecedented challenge to the whole world and the BCCI was no different. Hence, one has to have sympathy while judging their work in the period. It was nothing short of impressive how successfully the 2020 IPL was held in UAE with the viral disease wreaking havoc across the globe.
However, the 2021 edition left much to be desired. BCCI’s bold attempt to bring the tournament back to India backfired and the tournament being played in multiple cities across the nation with the deadly second wave at its peak was an image failure for BCCI. The bio-bubble being breached and multiple cases emerging across the eight teams only made things worse and the board being forced to suspend the league mid-way.
Although the tournament did finish six months later in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), India could not host the 2021 T20 World Cup and had to play it in Dubai, Abu Dhabi, and Sharjah. The team’s performance at the marquee event was also forgetful and IPL’s postponement did hamper India’s preparation to a large extent.
Domestic Cricket
With 38 teams in the Indian domestic structure, the fact that one season (2020/21) of the Ranji Trophy could not take place was perhaps understandable due to the logistical nightmare it would have brought. Ganguly & co. do deserve credit for holding the Vijay Hazare & Syed Mushtaq Ali trophy twice amid the pandemic.
In Ganguly’s tenure, domestic players did get a pay rise while pensions of ex-players were also increased which is praiseworthy. However, after taking charge almost immediately Ganguly had promised contracts for first-class players but it never happened.
