Sourav Ganguly has had an explosive start to his term as BCCI President. Within just a few weeks of being elected, Ganguly has made headlines repeatedly over his attempts to inject new life into a stagnant system.
Ganguly has already spearheaded the introduction of international day-night Tests and faced flak for hosting India’s first T20I in their series against Bangladesh in Delhi’s toxic air.
“I have enormous belief in myself. You give me something and if it needs to be turned around, I think I will. You will only be respected if you take a difficult challenge head on,” Ganguly told Hindustan Times in a recent interview.
Among the issues Ganguly was expected to tackle after coming on board as BCCI President was the the widely reported issue of a split-captaincy in Indian cricket.
After the Virat Kohli-led Indian team got knocked out of the 2019 ICC World Cup in the semi-finals, despite entering the tournament as favourites, there were many factions in the media that reported that the Board was looking to introduce a split-captaincy format, with Rohit Sharma leading the team in limited-overs cricket.
Sharma has a better win percentage than Kohli in ODIs and T20Is, as well as in the IPL. Kohli has emerged victorious 47.16 percent of his 110 games as captain in IPL, while Sharma has had superior success, winning 58.65 percent of the 104 games he has been skipper.
However, Ganguly said that he doesn’t think split-captaincy is one of his priorities right now. “I don’t think that is required to be even discussed now,” said Ganguly, when asked about different captains for different formats.
Ganguly had recently called Kohli ‘the most important man in Indian cricket’. Considering how Ganguly’s former teammate MS Dhoni is on the verge of retirement, it is obvious that Kohli is next in line to call the shots as a representative of his team.
Ganguly is perhaps one of the most high-profile BCCI presidents. He had led the Indian national team as captain and exceeded expectations by reaching the finals of the 2003 Cricket World Cup. But despite his cricketing calibre, Ganguly has vowed to stay away from team selection over his 10-month tenure as BCCI chief.
“Not difficult at all. I just won’t get involved in team selection matters. We will look at people who have the experience and the competence.”Sourav Ganguly
The current selection committee recently came under fire after the statements by Farokh Engineer, who brought up the lack of experience that the committee has had themselves of playing international cricket. The current group of five selectors have played 44 internationals including 13 Tests between them.
(With inputs from Hindustan Times, PTI)
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