Inside Story Of Sourav Ganguly -- The New BCCI President

Cricket wise, it gives BCCI lot of mileage and shield to have a cricketer of such repute lead the way as they head into the Supreme Court for their last leg of court-battle to tweak the reforms in their favour in name of practicality.

One of the basic essence of the Justice Lodha reforms was to ensure that politicians are flushed out of Indian cricket administration. What it eventually might have managed, is to get a cricketer to become a budding politician! That's exactly the back story of Sourav Ganguly -- from a man who first resurrected the Indian team in early 2000s from match-fixing mess to now dealing with fixing the mess in the BCCI. Amidst late Sunday night drama that has the potential to outplay the Big Boss melodrama, Indian cricket finally decided on their own boss after hectic parleying, flip-flops, change of names to finally a change of heart. Ganguly, its understood was initially reluctant to take any position, citing lot of monetary loss that he will have to endure, until he was made the BCCI president and also arrange for a life beyond September 2020, when he will have to demit office. The Lodha reforms mandates him to go into a cooling off period after six years in office in either state or BCCI combined. Ganguly is CAB President for the last five years, which leaves him with very little time in office. So why would Ganguly give up everything to become the BCCI president for just 10 months and cool heels for next 3 years? Why would he take a financial hit to the tune of Rs 5+ crores in form of IPL mentor, commentator and TV expert? After being BCCI big boss, he can't be going downwards to coaching or mentoring IPL teams or even doing commentary. So the big question is, why is Ganguly virtually giving up on Indian cricket and his association for a mere 10 month of being a BCCI president. Before we answer these questions, let's understand what's in it for the BCCI people and why there was consensus amongst a set of people hankering for plum posts? For starters, it was always clear that most states are BJP governed and a candidate would have the backing of their political top brass, given the clout cricket administration has, and its popularity in the country. Cricket wise, it gives BCCI lot of mileage and shield to have a cricketer of such repute lead the way as they head into the Supreme Court for their last leg of court-battle to tweak the reforms in their favour in name of practicality. The last Test cricketer to become the BCCI President was Maharaja Kumar Vizianagaram from 1954-56, and just add a few weeks and months of Shivlal Yadav and Sunil Gavaskar in 2014 as interim heads when the board was in middle of big flux and entering prolonged court-battle. However, this isn't just about politics of cricket. it's about hitting a six in political league as well. If BJP wanted to put their own people in BCCI, it could have been anyone. Just like Jay Shah as secretary, who will also demit office alongside Ganguly in 10 months time. Why did a Bengal face emerge out of all this lobying? Ganguly is tipped to be the biggest face to enter the Bengal state elections in 2021. The BJP and Trinamol Congress both have continued to woo Ganguly in the run up to the Lok Sabha elections but Ganguly deftly shouldered arms. The BJP has shown it has made inroads in Bengal in the recent Lok Sabha elections, and Ganguly knows that there's no face to their election campaign, unlike TMC and Didi. The forever captain in Ganguly knows what his next calling could be, and that's where he's likely to head. The science of sequencing also puts it nicely --- From Team India skipper to CAB president, and now from BCCI president to ..... Bengal CM? BCCI, Ganguly and BJP are going in for a strong partnership, and this seems to a winning combination. Well played. For all three of them.