On Could 6, Sourav Ganguly hosted Union Residence Minister Amit Shah at his residence and grapevine had it that there was greater than mishti doi on the dinner menu. A day later, the previous India captain and the present BCCI president was sharing the dais with senior TMC minister and Kolkata mayor Firhad Hakim on the inauguration programme of a personal hospital within the metropolis.
Forward of his assembly with Shah, Ganguly advised reporters: “Many speculations are rife, however I’ve recognized him (Shah) since 2008. Whereas taking part in, I used to satisfy him. There’s nothing greater than that.” On the sidelines of the hospital inauguration programme, he mentioned: “I’m additionally very near Firhad Hakim. He has been seeing me since I used to be in Class I. He has been our household pal. All who strategy him get assist. I, too, have referred to as him a number of occasions.”
Ganguly was unequivocal in his reward of Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee as effectively. “Our honourable Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee is an individual very near me. I had approached her to assist up this institute.”
Is the BCCI president flirting with politics? The query needs to be requested. Final 12 months, earlier than the Bengal Meeting polls, political circles had been abuzz that the 49-year-old could possibly be BJP’s chief ministerial candidate within the state. Ganguly side-stepped the manoeuvres (if any). Speculations have been doing the rounds that he, or his spouse Dona, could possibly be a nominated member of the Rajya Sabha.
For a star-starved state, Ganguly presents the tenuous hyperlink to worldwide stardom, which makes him the superstar to fall for even after virtually a decade-and-a-half of retiring from worldwide cricket. On the face of it, shut affiliation with totally different political events and high-profile political leaders has augured effectively for him. Ganguly was mentioned to be former Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee’s blue-eyed boy. Again in 2008, he had urged Tata group chief Ratan Tata to not shift the Nano manufacturing unit out of Bengal, whereas supporting the Left Entrance authorities’s stand, whilst Mamata Banerjee fought viciously in opposition to it. In 2015, after Jagmohan Dalmiya dying, Ganguly paid a go to to Banerjee, as his elevation because the Cricket Affiliation of Bengal president was introduced from the state secretariat. Hearsay has it that, his assembly with Shah forward of the BCCI elections in 2019 paved the best way for Ganguly to helm the Indian cricket board.
Ganguly, although, will not be a case in isolation. Cricket directors and political leaders have all the time been in shut proximity and lots of occasions, energetic politicians like NKP Salve, Sharad Pawar and Anurag Thakur have taken cost of Indian cricket. Many a time, Indian cricket has benefited from such associations. The present BCCI dispensation has a political overtone, however that additionally doesn’t supply any novelty.
Speaking about political connections serving to win cricket posts, that is additionally a long-standing observe in Indian cricket. For instance, on the 2001 BCCI presidential election, Dalmiya had pulled off a coup by flying in former Assam Chief Minister Prafulla Kumar Mahanta, which tilted the size in his favour in an acrimonious battle in opposition to AC Muthiah. The latter had Pawar on his facet, however apart from Mahanta, Dalmiya additionally needed to thank a high-profile politician who tragically died in an accident, simply days later.
A narrative does the rounds that BJP doesn’t have a neighborhood face in Bengal to tackle Banerjee and the reported try and venture Ganguly for the 2021 elections was their pound of flesh. As Ganguly suffered a coronary heart assault final 12 months and underwent angioplasty, senior CPI(M) chief Ashok Bhattacharya had raised the difficulty. “Some individuals needed to make use of Ganguly politically. That most likely exerted stress on him. He’s not a political aspect. He needs to be often called Sourav, the sporting icon,” Bhattacharya, the BCCI chief’s household pal, had mentioned, including: “We shouldn’t create stress on him. I had advised Sourav he shouldn’t be part of politics and he didn’t disagree.”
To this point, Ganguly has stored politics at arm’s size and other people within the know, his shut pals, consider that he’s unlikely to make the leap. “Sourav is the ‘Prince of Calcutta’. Don’t suppose he desires a division in his fan-base by committing to any political celebration. He has cordial relations with political leaders reducing throughout celebration strains. It’s more likely to keep that approach,” mentioned considered one of them.
Amit Shah’s son Jay, the BCCI secretary, is Ganguly’s colleague within the cricket board. As the top of Indian cricket, the ex-India skipper wants to keep up the precise rapport with the federal government. Almost about his political profession sooner or later, this could possibly be an evolving state of affairs, one thing that deserves maintaining a tally of.
