Bishan Singh Bedi and Sunil Gavaskar, two outspoken India captains, resented undistinguished cricket board officials strutting around in India blazers. They would say it has to be earned playing for India, not as an undeserving honour. Besides many other cricketers, Bedi and Gavaskar will be happy that they now have a board president who can proudly wear his India blazer by right.
Sourav Ganguly brushed the blazer he wore as India captain for his enthronement. Unlike many predecessors, he spoke like a cricketer about the game and players more than politics, though he did touch upon the money the BCCI has to get from the ICC. The only cricketer to become BCCI president before him was Raj Singh Dungarpur, if one discounts Maharajkumar Vizianagaram ‘Vizzy’, who became India captain by virtue of being a “prince.”
Raj Singh had a distinguished first-class career for Rajasthan for 16 seasons in Ranji Trophy. Rajbhai, as he was known, may not have played for India but he picked teams as chairman of the national selection committee and was manager of Kapil Dev’s team that won the series in England in 1986. Three years later, he famously asked Mohammed Azharuddin, who is now the president of Hyderabad Cricket Association, “miyan kaptaan banoge” (would you like to become captain) before actually picking him to lead India.
The board missed a great opportunity of honouring another India captain Ghulam Ahmed, but the suave administrator who served Indian cricket in every conceivable capacity, excused himself, not wanting to be part of a changed set-up of dynamic and brash administrators. He said in private he would not fit into the new regime, though the excuse he cited was age.
Ganguly rehearsed his lines perfectly to suit the occasion, be it about Virat Kohli or Ravi Shastri or MS Dhoni. He was effusive in his praise for the way the captain and coach are managing the team and dignifiedly diplomatic about Dhoni.Another of his pet ideas is day-night Tests. He wants it to happen as early as possible. His conviction that Test cricket can survive if played under lights is right. Crowds are bound to flock the stadiums. Left to him, he would have liked to see one of the Tests against Bangladesh to be day-night.
Ganguly took over a day after Kohli’s team smashed South Africa 3-0 for its 11th successive series victory to stay on top of the Test Championship table. Ganguly hailed Kohli as the most important individual and assured him that the board is there to listen to him and support him in whatever he and Shastri may need.
Even before he met Kohli on Thursday when the captain came to attend the selection committee meeting, Ganguly reminded him that he expects the team to win ICC trophies. As former captain, he knows team requirements and promised to make sure they will get what they want. He spoke like a cricketer, not TV commentator.
Ever since getting elected as president, he has repeated that domestic cricket is his priority. He went a step further on Wednesday, saying he would set things right before the Ranji Trophy gets underway.
His punchline: “I will do it the way I know.” That means his word should prevail for the next nine months and possibly more. That’s what one thought of the Lodha Commission recommendations.
Whatever be the recommendations on age, tenure and governance model, the board continues to be in the grip of 70-plus careerist administrators and powerful politicians in the form of their kith and kin. Here political affiliations do not matter, as has been the case with the board for decades. The BCCI is the only place where leaders meet as good friends, not bitter political rivals.
The only people who will be happy with whatever has been salvaged of the Lodha report are the two members of the original Committee of Administrators — Vinod Rai and Diana Edulji — collecting `3crore each for quarrelling on every issue, taking some of them back to the Supreme Court.
If Ganguly fulfils all that he has promised, Indian cricket will be in for exciting times.
(The writer is a veteran commentator. Views expressed are personal. He can be reached at sveturi@gmail.com).