Amid talk of his impending departure from BCCI, board chairman Sourav Ganguly said on Thursday that he “can’t be a trustee forever.”
The former India captain will be succeeded as chairman of the board by Roger Binny, a member of the 1983 World Cup-winning team, at the parent body’s upcoming AGM (Annual General Meeting). “You can’t play forever. You can’t be an admin forever, but it’s been fun doing both and seeing both sides of the coin. I will look for bigger things in the future,” Ganguly said on the sidelines of a Bandhan bank-related event. “I was the manager of a cricketer. Yes, you had to make decisions because there is a lot of cricket going on, there is a lot of money around. There is women’s cricket, there is domestic cricket. Yes, sometimes you had to take calls as an individual,” he added. Ganguly was eager to continue as head of BCCI, but things did not turn out that way, even with Jay Shah continuing as secretary.
Ganguly first entered cricket administration as secretary to Jagmohan Dalmiya at the Bengal Cricket Association (CAB), before heading the state body after the veteran’s death in September 2015. Speaking of achieving success, the former captain cited the example of Prime Minister Narendra. Mod. “Life, achievements and progress are about small goals, you don’t become Sachin Tendulkar, Ambani or Narendra Modi in one day.”
“You have to spend your life, time, days, weeks, months working to achieve it. That is the key to success. If you decide that this is my job, this is my life, give everything you have so that the rest of your life is the best. Ganguly also spoke about the highlights of his tenure as president of BCCI.
“I think I loved it. If you look at the last three years, so many good things have happened. IPL during COVID, such difficult times for all of us in the country. We didn’t know how to deal with it. The broadcast rights that reached their highest point.”
“The U-19 winning the World Cup. I wish the women won gold at the Commonwealth Games, they were in a position to beat Australia. Senior team winning in Australia. They were great moments as an administrator. But they came back with a silver that was still the first. “I hope they do well in Australia because they are a tremendous cricket team. There is so much talent, so much power, class in the side,” he said, wishing the India team luck for the upcoming T20 World Cup. “You expect them to win every time. But the challenge of being a player was completely different. So you can’t compare the two.” Ganguly said the challenges as a cricketer go beyond being a manager.
“I did eight years of administration. I was the president of the Bengal Cricket Association, then I became the president of the BCCI, all of these have mandates and you have to leave after you finish it.”
“But I feel like the challenge as a cricketer was so much more. When you work in the back room, sit at the tables and run the game, you have time to correct things. “But if you stole a Glenn McGrath delivery the first morning of a test, you’re out, you didn’t have time to correct it, I think that’s the main difference.
“But when you do the administration you realize that you contribute so much, you could make things better for a cricketer and I, being a player who played for a long period of time, understood that,” he signed.
