Picture Credit: Twitter
It hasn't been an easy sail for the ship called the Indian cricket. Along the way, there have been several thunderstorms and obstacles and the last four-five months have been brought more bad news and controversies than pleasant ones in the overall scheme of things in Indian cricket. Just when things were starting to look bright with regular captain Rohit Sharma set to return to lead his limited-overs team, yet another controversy has surfaced involving BCCI President Sourav Ganguly.
It is being learned that Ganguly forcefully attends selection meetings, fully aware that he should not do so as mandated in the BCCI constitution. While a senior journalist had tweeted the same without naming the BCCI official, senior cricket journalists Vikrant Gupta and Nikhil Naaz discussed the issue at length during an episode of Cricket Adda which was aired on Youtube and did not shy away from singling out Ganguly.
However, the BCCI board members themselves look divided. An Inside Sport report quoted two contrasting comments from two of the top BCCI officials. While one called the reports "utter nonsense & completely false", the other has claimed that Ganguly has been forcing things on various accounts. "This is how BCCI is being run now a days. Ganguly doesn’t have any business to attend selection meetings. Extremely unfortunate this is," the other official was quoted.
Notably, as per the BCCI's constitution, the Board President is not allowed to interfere in matters of selection. This is because then he can influence the decision. Only the BCCI Secretary can act as the convenor of the meeting. In matters of selection, the selectors have the final authority with the Chairman of the Selection Committee, being the most powerful of the lot.
On almost all occasions, the team is decided in consultation with the team captain and coach. Usually, the talk with the think tank happens before the selection meeting after which it is up to the selectors to finalise the squad. If indeed there is some truth in the recent reports that have emerged involving Ganguly, it might not be the right way to do things, even if the former India skipper has the best intentions behind his actions.
