The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has made it clear that it will back the current International Cricket Council (ICC) chairman Greg Barclay to retain the post and the Indian board will not be endorsing Sourav Ganguly’s name for the same. The BCCI representative for ICC and CEC, AGM has given powers to office bearers to decide on the same.
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As reported by Indian Express earlier, the only big point of speculation is who the two BCCI representatives will be at the ICC. While Jay Shah is expected to be India’s representative at the ICC Board meetings, the BCCI has made it clear now that it will give the ICC chairmanship a miss and back a second term for New Zealand’s Greg Barclay.
BCCI AGM took place on Tuesday.
Earlier on Monday, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee waded into the controversy surrounding Ganguly’s impending exit from the Indian cricket board, saying she will request Prime Minister Narendra Modi to allow the former India cricketer and BCCI chief to contest for the position of ICC chairperson.
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Ganguly is a widely popular figure in West Bengal and his removal from the BCCI has led to a political slugfest between the Trinamool Congress (TMC) and the BJP. The CPI(M) and the Congress have also questioned Ganguly’s impending exit from the cricket body. Non-BJP parties have alleged that the former cricketer had to pay the price for saying no to joining the BJP.
Last year, Ganguly’s name made the rounds in political circles as a probable BJP chief ministerial candidate if the party won the Assembly polls. At the time, the TMC also reportedly tried to get Ganguly to join it. Sources close to the former cricket captain said he felt tremendous pressure from both sides in the run-up to the polls and subsequently decided not to take the plunge into politics. On May 7, Ganguly hosted a dinner at his Kolkata home for Amit Shah. That triggered a fresh round of speculation.
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