Sourav Ganguly to stop mentoring Delhi Capitals; writing articles; doing commentary after taking over as BCCI chief

He has always been Indian cricket’s quintessential comeback man. Less than 11 years since he played his last international match, the former India captain Sourav Ganguly is set to become the president of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI). However, matching his feats on the ground and off it, controversies have also been a regular feature of Ganguly’s career.

Conflict of interest has been major trouble in the former cricketer’s career as an administrator and he has now confirmed that he will leave all other assignments after taking over as the board’s chief excluding the popular Bengali reality TV show ‘Dadagiri’ that he hosts and endorsements.

Ganguly, who leads the Cricket Association of Bengal at the moment besides undertaking the mentoring role for Indian Premier League (IPL) franchise Delhi Capitals and writing columns and doing commentary, was quoted as saying by Sportstar, “I will continue doing only (Bengali TV show) Dadagiri and endorsements, rest all stopped. Commentary, article writing and IPL, I’ll stop doing all this now.”

As per the recommendations of the Lodha Committee, Ganguly cannot hold more than one position in the BCCI. Since the Bengali show is not related to the cricket body, he has been exempted from anchoring that.

Other former greats like Dravid, Tendulkar, Laxman also faced a similar problem

It was this very clash that saw the likes of Rahul Dravid and Sanjay Bangar leave their job at the IPL. Dravid, another former India captain, was the coach of India A, India U19 and Delhi Daredevils (now Capitals) at the same time in 2017. The board then had asked all the coaches to pick only one job.

Dravid also had faced allegations of conflict of interest while taking up the role of the director of the National Cricket Academy’s Cricket Operations since he was also the vice-president of the Indian Cements group that owns’ IPL franchise Chennai Super Kings.

When faced to choose between the BCCI and IPL, both Dravid and Bangar preferred the former. India’s head coach Ravi Shastri is also not allowed to do commentary because of his plum post. Ganguly, along with two former greats Sachin Tendulkar and VVS Laxman, also had to leave the Cricket Advisory Committee because of conflict of interests because they are also in mentoring roles in the IPL.

Ganguly will be able to take over the other assignments once his tenure ends at the BCCI in August 2020. Thereafter, he will have to go to a cooling-off period.

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