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Ganguly with former selector M S K Prasad, BCCI secretary Jay Shah, and players and officials in 2019. (BCCI)WHEN WRIDDHIMAN Saha expressed shock at being dropped from the Test team despite assurances from Sourav Ganguly, the Bengal wicket-keeper unwittingly drew attention to a new practice that’s making a mockery of the cricket board’s governance norms: the former India captain and present BCCI president’s unauthorised say in selection matters.
The BCCI constitution bars its president from having any role in picking the national team in order to retain the independence and autonomy of the selection committee. “The President is shorn of his say in selections,” the Supreme Court-approved constitution says. The only BCCI office-bearer authorised to be present is the secretary, who acts as a convenor without a say in selection.
However, The Indian Express spoke to three past and present selectors under Ganguly’s tenure, who confirmed that he was a regular feature at selection meetings. A senior BCCI functionary went to the extent of claiming that Ganguly has attended every selection meeting since he took over as BCCI president in October 2019.
Raising the issue of propriety, two selectors said Ganguly would log in for online selection meetings and “because of his stature and position, no one could object”. One of them revealed that they often felt “bullied” by his presence. “It made many committee members uncomfortable and guarded in expressing their opinion,” said the selector, speaking on the condition of anonymity.
With Ganguly as BCCI chief, the selection committee has taken some key decisions, including the ouster of Virat Kohli as ODI skipper and captaincy for Rohit Sharma across formats.
Multiple sources in the Indian board confirmed Ganguly’s presence at selection meetings. They said that considering the former captain’s stature — he played 113 Tests and 311 One-day Internationals — the less-experienced selectors were “reluctant to express their opinion”. This has undermined the power of Indian cricket’s all-important decision-making committee, they said.
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The current chairman of selectors, Chetan Sharma, has featured in 23 Tests and 65 One-day Internationals and his predecessor M S K Prasad in six Tests and 17 ODIs.
The combined experience of the current group of selectors, which also includes Debashish Mohanty, Sunil Joshi and Harvinder Singh, is 43 Tests and 195 ODIs. The previous panel had played nine Tests and 28 ODIs between them.
Last month, Saha spoke about the message he had received from Ganguly after scoring a half-century against New Zealand despite a neck injury.
“After scoring 61 against New Zealand at Kanpur, Dadi (Ganguly) congratulated me over WhatsApp and mentioned, ‘As long as I’m here (helming the BCCI), you would be in the team’. Such a message from the BCCI president really boosted my confidence. What I’m struggling to understand is how things have changed so fast,” Saha had told The Sunday Express, referring to his omission from the team for the Sri Lanka series.
Ganguly’s proximity to the selection committee first came to light on October 24, 2019, a day after he was elected BCCI president, when the board tweeted a picture with a caption: “All smiles at the Senior Selection Committee meeting earlier this afternoon as the teams for the forthcoming T20I & Test series against Bangladesh were announced.”
The image showed Ganguly seated between the then chief selector, Prasad, and BCCI secretary Jay Shah, and along with the then skipper Kohli, Rohit Sharma and other selectors.
Recently, when the picture started doing the rounds again on social media, Ganguly denied the frame was from a selection meeting. In an interview with PTI, he said: “I want to make it clear that the picture wasn’t from a selection committee meeting.”
About allegations of him influencing team selection, he told the news agency: “I don’t think I need to answer anybody, anything (on this) and dignify any of these baseless accusations. I am the president of the BCCI and I do the job of what the president of the BCCI should be doing. (I have played) 424 international matches for India. Not a bad idea at times to remind people about it, isn’t it?”
When The Indian Express sent a detailed questionnaire to Ganguly on the issue, he did not respond.
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