Sourav Ganguly is all set to be elected unopposed as BCCI president. The former Indian captain filed his nomination in Mumbai on Sunday.
Batting great Sourav Ganguly is in line to become only the 2nd India cricketer after Maharaja of Vizianagaram to serve as the president of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI).
Sourav Ganguly is all set to be elected unopposed as the new BCCI president. The former India captain filed his nomination for the coveted post on Monday at the BCCI headquarters in Mumbai. He was accompanied by former BCCI bosses Niranjan Shah and N Srinivasan as he became the only candidate to file the nomination.
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Only once before had an India cricketer achieved the rare double. Maharaja of Vizianagaram, who led India in a Test tour to England in 1936. Despite playing only 3 Test matches for India, the Maharaja of Vizianagaram a.k.a Vizzy served as BCCI president between 1954 and 1956.
Notably, former India captain Sunil Gavaskar and Shivlal Yadav have also served as interim BCCI presidents in 2014.
The BCCI elections were scheduled to be held on October 23 but with Sourav Ganguly being the only candidate to file his nomination for the top post of Indian cricket, he is set to be elected unopposed.
A consensus between the state units of BCCI was built during an unofficial meeting last week. Ganguly was unanimously accepted as the presidential candidate by the representatives of the state units.
Shedding light on the dramatic turn of events in which he piped Brijesh Patel to become the frontrunner for BCCI president post, Ganguly said: “I didn’t know I would be the President when I came down. You (the reporter) asked me and I told you it’s Brijesh and when I went up and I came to know it has changed. I have never been in a BCCI election and I never knew it worked like this.
Sourav Ganguly, however, will be able to serve as BCCI president only until September 2020 due to the cooling off period. He has been holding posts in Cricket Association of Bengal for the past five years where he currently serves as president and an administrator can only serve six years on the trot.
Ganguly said he was looking forward to taking over the top job and “do something” to correct the hampered image of BCCI.
“I am happy with the appointment because this is the time when BCCI’s image has got hampered and it’s a great opportunity for me to do something,” Ganguly told India Today on Sunday.
