Sourav Ganguly to take charge as BCCI president today

Ganguly, one of the most successful Indian skippers, was unanimously nominated as the chief of one of the richest cricket boards though he was not the first choice to assume the topmost position.

Though initially former BCCI president N Srinivasan's known man Brijesh Patel was favourite to get nominated, in a dramatic turnaround Ganguly emerged as the consensuous candidate with Union Home Minister Amit Shah's son Jay Shah becoming the Secretary.

Ganguly, who shirked off any political connection, said, "I have never expressed my aspiration to become the BCCI president...... I never spoke to any politician.... I am not joining politics right now. Let me do one thing at a time."

Amit Shah has himself admitted in an interview that he had spoken to Ganguly prior to the nomination of the BCCI president.

The former skipper, who is also the Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB) president, has already stated his first priority will be focussing on first class cricketers and bringing the "house in order".

"We as a BCCI team will have to bring back normalcy in the cricket board and put the house in order. In the last three years, there was almost a state of emergency in the BCCI," he told reporters.

Ganguly also received wishes from all his former teammates like Virender Sehwag, Yuvraj Singh and others who have bloomed under his captaincy in early 2000.

However, the man who steered the Indian cricket as the skipper from the dark days of match-fixing in early 21st century, can remain the BCCI head till Sept 2020 as he will go to the mandatory cooling off period for three years.

(Image Credit: IBNS File)