'Can't be an administrator forever.. will go for bigger things in future': Sourav Ganguly after unceremonious BCCI exit

As per the latest report, 1983 World Cup winning team member Roger Binny will take over as the BCCI president this month. 

While a section of Ganguly's fans slammed the BCCI officials for an unceremonious exit of the former skipper, who experienced a deja vu of the 2005 Greg Chappell saga, the news also triggered political ramifications with West Bengal's ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) and Left slamming the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) over the development.

Breaking his silence on the issue at an event of Bandhan Bank in the city Thursday, Ganguly said, "You can’t play forever. You can’t be an administrator forever, but it’s been fun doing both and seeing both sides of the coin. I will go for bigger things in future."

"I was a cricketers' administrator. Yes, you had to make decisions because there’s so much cricket happening, there’s so much money around. There’s women’s cricket, there’s domestic cricket. Yes, you had to take calls at times as an individual," he added.

Roger Binny (L) and Sourav Ganguly (R) | Image Credit: Wikipedia and Avishek Mitra/IBNS

Ganguly's appointment as the BCCI chief in 2019 had triggered widespread speculations of him joining the BJP ahead of the 2021 assembly elections in West Bengal.

Various reports had back then claimed the BJP was hoping for its much needed Chief Ministerial face in West Bengal-born Ganguly to take on mighty Mamata Banerjee-led TMC in the eastern state.

Reflecting on his days of administering cricket, Ganguly said, "I did eight years of administration. I was president of the Cricket Association of Bengal, then became president of the BCCI. All these have tenures and you have to go after finishing it. But I feel the challenge as a cricketer was a lot more."

"When you do backroom work, sitting on tables and running the game, you have time to correct things," the former skipper, who made a memorable comeback in Team India after he was axed in 2005, added.

Ganguly, who leads an extremely busy life with his commitments to a meaty number of endorsements, hosting his television show et al, was instrumental in appointing cricket great Rahul Dravid as the head coach of the men's national team after Ravi Shastri resigned.

Comparing his playing days with that of as an administrator, he said Thursday, "But if you nicked a delivery from Glenn McGrath on the first morning of a Test, you are (were) out, you didn’t have the time to correct it – I think that’s the major difference.

"But when you do administration, you realise that you contribute so much, you could make things better for a cricketer, and me being a player who played for a long period of time, I understood that."

Sourav Ganguly as BCCI chief | Image Credit: Twitter/BCCI

Some reports claimed Ganguly was offered the chairman's position in the hugely popular, cash-rich domestic T20 tournament, Indian Premier League (IPL) but he "politely declined" the offer.

The cricket great, who shaped Team India as a captain, wanted to continue as the BCCI president, reports said.

BCCI secretary and Union Home Minister Amit Shah's son Jay Shah, the second most important person on the board, is likely to remain in his post and that has drawn "nepotism" jibes from the opposition political parties against the BJP.

Reports said former BCCI president and IPL franchise Chennai Super Kings (CSK)'s owner N Srinivasan was one among those who slammed Ganguly as a board president accusing him of "non-performance" and alleged that he had represented brands that were the direct rivals of the board's sponsors.

Ganguly's decisions on former skipper Virat Kohli (his stepping down as T20 captain and each other's contradictory remarks on the issue) also earned him the wrath of many in cricketing circles and among Kohli fans.