'It is up to you all to judge my legacy': Sourav Ganguly opens up on his run as BCCI president
Sourav Ganguly's run as BCCI president continues to receive mixed reactions from the public.
Like his time as captain of the Indian cricket team, Sourav Ganguly's tenure as the BCCI president too is filled with ups and downs. Under Ganguly, India played its first-ever Day/Night Test, while the women's team played Tests in England and Australia, including a pink-ball game under lights. Besides, one of the biggest obstacles the BCCI faced was conducting the IPL in a pandemic, which the Ganguly resolved not once but twice staging the biggest T20 league in the world in the UAE. And yet, Ganguly's run as BCCI president continues to receive mixed reactions from the public.
With Ganguly's three-year-term as BCCI chief coming to an end later this year around September-October, the former India captain stated that he is not yet in a position to say what legacy he will leave behind. Instead, Ganguly left it to the public to pass their verdict on whether the 49-year-old has passed or failed during his time as president of the BCCI.
"I don't think it's more challenging. What's my legacy? Well, I won't be able to tell it now. Let's see what happens. It is up to you all to judge my legacy, it is what it is. But it has been under tough circumstances due to Covid-19 over the last two years. The pandemic has wreaked havoc all over the world and we are fortunate that we could still manage to get a majority of cricket done," Ganguly told Sportstar in an interview.
The biggest setback of Ganguly's reign as BCCI chief is his alleged fallout with former India captain Virat Kohli. The whole thing began when Kohli, who had stepped down as India's T20I skipper, was sacked from captaincy in ODIs as well. What made matters worse was Kohli and Ganguly's contradictory takes on how Virat's decision to step away as India's T20I captain was received by the board. While Ganguly said that he and the BCCI had requested Kohli to continue, the former captain stated otherwise.
This led to a back-and-forth roll of the dice. The entire incident snowballed and reached a crescendo with Kohli stepping down as India's Test captain after the team's 1-2 Test series defeat to South Africa, meaning he was no longer in charge of any team. Many feel Kohli's decision to resign from India's Test captaincy was related to the board sacking him as ODI skipper. The chapter witnessed another twist when it was reported that Ganguly was about to issue a show cause notice to Kohli but was stopped from doing so, although the BCCI president outrightly denied any such reports.
