Kohli, Saha, Brand Promotions, selection influence, IPL in Covid, 50000 cr IPL rights: We help you rate Sourav Ganguly's performance as the BCCI President

Sourav Ganguly, the leader, captain of bad times, and hero to many Indian cricketers was crowned as the BCCI President to be a "Cricketer's administrator" in 2019. Three years passed, and although the "Dada" of Indian cricket wished to be on the BCCI President's chair, he will not. Former BCCI and ICC Head N Srinivasan have already stated Ganguly's tenure as a "failure". But, we wanted to discuss everything that happened during the Ganguly-Shah era and give you a chance to rate his performance as the head of the BCCI.

Firstly, although, there seems to be a huge political influence in BCCI elections, we will be overlooking that and focus on the things Sourav Ganguly did and did not do as the Chief of BCCI.

Dream11 vs My11 Circle and conflict of interests

Sourav Ganguly was the first-ever cricketer administrator in Indian Cricket and that led him to gain more popularity as the face of Indian Cricket. In fact, he was the first BCCI Head to be seen on hoardings and advertisements of many products and businesses. Though, there were always questions asked about Ganguly's "conflict of interest", he handled those questions with composure.

But, everything crossed the line when the then BCCI President was seen in advertisements for a fantasy gaming app named "My11 Circle" which was a lead competitor to then India's main sponsor Dream11. Since he claimed to have never endorsed the platform, there was no "conflict of interest" as the President of BCCI.

As per Bhavin Pandya, co-founder and CEO of My11 Circle, "he is co-creating the platform here," which meant the former Indian captain was only a player on that app just like other users.

But many raised questions about his ever-growing brand promotions as the BCCI Head and that even allowed players like Virat Kohli to endorse questionable financial brands. Even in 2020, the Madurai bench of the Madras High Court sent notices to Sourav Ganguly and Virat Kohli after a lawyer had made a complaint against them regarding these promotions.

IPL in COVID: 2019 a success, 2020 with many loopholes

Even in his recent interview, Sourav Ganguly stated that the IPL in Covid was one the brightest moments in his tenure as BCCI head. Yes, given the tough times, restrictions and the fear of getting contaminated, team Ganguly and Shah pulled off a great Indian Premier League in 2019 in UAE.

However, the lack of control over the bio-bubble showed how fragile was Ganguly's BCCI in conducting the home season IPL in 2022. People started breaking the bubble regulations and soon IPL 2020 was postponed indefinitely before it was started again. So, a plus and minus for Ganguly here.

Domestic Cricket: A promise never fully fulfilled

After Sourav Ganguly chaired the BCCI Office, everyone was promised that the wealthiest and richest cricket board in the world would take care of its domestic cricket and players. However, the promise never got fulfilled as even payments of domestic players were not cleared on time as well. Although, it was claimed that those delays were from the state association's end. Players received postponed instalments which were not expected from the biggest association in the cricketing world.

Even with BCCI increasing the match fees for domestic players in the 2021-22 season, the domestic cricket structure did not see any significant changes. The IPL was always the centre of attraction for BCCI and its team.

BCCI: The corporate association

Sourav was always termed as the player's leader. He was always the compassionate one with and for his players. But, that was not visible in the BCCI President when the news of Veda Krishnamurthy broke out in the news.

Veda, the Indian Women's cricketer had lost her mother in Covid and was also sacked from the BCCI Contract in 2021. The reports said, Veda was not even contacted by BCCI and its officials in her tough times and was not even communicated about her removal from the upcoming England tour.

Former Australian Women's captain Lisa was vocal about this incident via her Twitter post.

There is still time to fix this!! pic.twitter.com/LT3hApMioJ

— Lisa Sthalekar (@sthalekar93) May 15, 2021

Not only that Ganguly led BCCI was ignorant of WV Raman's plea against the smear campaign that was going against him. Even Raman had stated that the smear campaign against him was favoured by some BCCI executives as well.

The KOHLI Saga

The Ganguly era in BCCI hit its lowest when the Kohli saga happened. The then-Indian captain Virat Kohli's removal from the T20I captaincy was poorly handled by BCCI. Things even got worse when both Kohli and Ganguly made conflicting public statements regarding the T20I captaincy.

With everything happening just one month before the T20 World Cup, it was an embarrassing moment for BCCI. Even the Kohli fans did not hold themselves to taking on Sourav Ganguly via their social media posts. It was quite evident that Ganguly and his team failed miserably to handle the Kohli saga.

Selection influence and Wriddhiman Saha

In the BCCI constitution, it is stated that no BCCI executive and members can influence or control any selection of an Indian team. But from many reports it was seen that Sourav Ganguly the President was quite active in the selection process; maybe indirectly but was active. Although the former Indian captain always laughed and cleared out all of those rumours.

But, everything fall out of place for him when Indian wicket-keeper batter Wriddhiman Saha stated that he was promised a place in the team as long as Sourav Ganguly was there in the BCCI.

Read Also: Top 10 Unluckiest Indian cricketers who could have been successful in a different era

Even when everyone in BCCI was rooting for a permanent ban on Boria Majumder for his threatening messages to Saha, only got a two-year ban; which some thought was because of Ganguly's backing. Although the decision was made by a three-member panel comprising BCCI vice-president Rajiv Shukla, treasurer Arun Singh Dhumal and apex council member Prabhtej Singh Bhatia. 

Read Also: Wriddhiman Saha: BCCI will do a "thorough investigation" of Saha's tweet and everything he said

Business and BCCI: Sourav Ganguly era

The biggest positive of the Sourav Ganguly era is the amount of business BCCI was able to attract. Only the IPL rights made sure BCCI now has a brand value of a hooping ₹48,390 cr. for the next 5-year cycle which is nearly 6-fold than its previous 10-year period.

With the Ganguly era coming to end, the new BCCI team will surely reap from the amount of money and business Sourav Ganguly led BCCI was able to attract.

Now with his chances of being the IPL Chairman looking far-fetched, Sourav Ganguly can surely be back at his home as the President of the Cricket Association of Bengal. The Ganguly fans will surely be waiting for a comeback from the "God of off-side" as he stated he is going to do much bigger things in future.