Will Sourav Ganguly replace Anil Kumble in ICC Cricket Committee?

Jul 3, 2016 at 5:13 PM

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Will Sourav Ganguly replace Anil Kumble in ICC Cricket Committee?

The ICC annual conference in Edinburgh has debated over Anil Kumble’s replacement as the chairman of the world cricket’s governing body’s cricket committee. Although there seems no immediate requirement to find a successor for Kumble, who has taken over  the Indian team’s coaching job last week, but there will be a time in near future when the ICC will be forced to take a call.

There is no such official statement or indications about any development as yet but Sourav Ganguly looks to be a potential candidate for the post. Sources close to BCCI suggest some sort of discussions did take place during the recent conclave of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) in Dharamsala, where Kumble’s appointment was officially announced. The latest trend highly favouring  Ganguly, who has previously expressed interest in the job and he is still open to taking over as the head of the panel.

Before announcing his elite class during Test debut in 1996, Sourav Ganguly was relatively low key on international debut, in an ODI in 1992. His foray into administration has to some extent followed the same trajectory.

While remaining Quiet after being appointed as the Cricket Association of Bengal’s joint-secretary under the late Jagmohan Dalmiya in 2014, Ganguly started to make his presence felt following impressive rise to the association’s top post last September. Still to win an election, he has created ripples in BCCI too, as chairman of its technical committee.

In six months of being made the head of the committee regulate playing conditions in domestic cricket, Ganguly proposed Ranji Trophy games at neutral venues to stop the growing tendency to doctor pitches in home games, it is also a call to discard a practice BCCI units have got used to.

The former captain’s attitude has drawn the attention of members also, who are by and large against the Lodha panel recommendation to involve more players in administration.

“His thoughts are different. When he talks about the betterment of cricket, you can make out that the words are a person who has excelled as player at the highest level. It’s not easy to propose changes in something everybody is accustomed to. What the committee has said about neutral venues is based on truth,” said a unit head, who is part of the working committee.

Ganguly taking over from Kumble could be visualized as natural succession – he is obviously an equally accomplished cricketer like the incumbent. Not only that, the former Indian captain is the chairman of the technical committee of  BCCI, a position which to some extent is equivalent to the ICC post. But the most significant point is the post doesn’t belong to BCCI and ICC can choose to appoint any former cricketer. Neither BCCI secretary Ajay Shirke, nor Ganguly, responded to queries on this particular topic.

Handpicked by the chief minister to be elected as the president of Cricket Association of Bengal after Dalmiya’s demise, Sourav Ganguly was quick to showing at the regional level that he doesn’t treat conventions as eternal sunshine. Other than addressing the long-standing problem of the Eden outfield, he ordered green wickets in local matches to help Ranji preparations and also successfully hosted the first day-night match with pink balls at Eden.

“Ganguly comes to meetings prepared. You can see he has done homework and knows what he’s talking about. There’s an effort on his part to take things to the next level. He’s communicative and seeks the opinion of other committee members. Whether these plans will be approved is up to the working committee, but you can’t overlook the fact that Ganguly is trying to make things happen,” someone who attended BCCI meetings with him in the past once said.

But you have to keep in mind, the ICC Cricket Committee is often criticised as a toothless body as their recommendations will have to be approved by the administrators but that didn’t stop eminent former cricketers, including Sunil Gavaskar to hold the position. Now, the question is will Sourav be still interested in taking charge?

The panel usually meets only once a year but the chairman happens to be an active member of the ICC’s Chief Executives Committee (CEC) which meets four times a year.

Anil Kumble, who got an extension this year, should have been ideally present at the ICC Scotland gathering but it is believed that the new India coach expressed regret over his inability to be present during the annual conference. There is, however, no information of him stepping down from the Cricket Committee Chairman position. But if he does, Sourav Ganguly seems the frontrunner to replace his considering Indian cricket board’s hold in ICC.

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