Bengaluru, October 14: Sourav Ganguly is all set to take over as the new BCCI president during the Board AGM on October 23 at Mumbai with other frontrunner for the post Brijesh Patel most likely to adorn the post of IPL chairman.
It is a sort of journey getting complete for Ganguly. The Bengal strongman was appointed India captain in 2000 when the team was reeling under match-fixing allegations that also saw a number of cricketers getting in the legal net, including Mohammed Azharuddin, who recently became the Hyderabad Cricket Association president.
Nineteen years later, the story is almost similar as the BCCI image has taken a hit in the last couple of years for several reasons and was put under the CoA rule by the Supreme Court. Now, Ganguly as a seasoned administrator has the tough job of regaining the BCCI image and positioning it once again atop.
Here MyKhel takes a look at the journey of the 47-year-old Ganguly through a timeline, from cricketer to BCCI chief.
1. 1992 - Baptism by fire
Ganguly made his India debut in an ODI against the West Indies in 1992 at Brisbane and was out for three. But soon he was dropped from the Indian team getting labelled as "arrogant" and had to wait for four years to return to the side. Ganguly scored heavily in the ensuing domestic seasons and finally got selected for the tour of England in 1996.
2. 1996 - Successful Test debut
The Test debut is now part of the folklore. It came at the hallowed Lord's against England and Ganguly walked back with a hundred against his name. Incidentally, Rahul Dravid too made Test debut in that match and both the batsmen became pillar of India line-up for a number of years to come.
3. 2000 - Became India captain
Those were the Dark Ages for India cricket. Several cricketers were caught in the fire of match-fixing. Azharuddin, Ajay Jadeja, Ajay Sharma etc were banished from cricket while the others like Manoj Prabhakar and Kapil Dev stood under the looming shadow. India need a strong leader, a new start to get away from the torrid time and the BCCI made Ganguly the captain and the move paid off handsomely. The left-hander groomed some talented youngsters like Harbhajan Singh, Virender Sehwag, Yuvraj Singh, Mohammed Kaif, Zaheer Khan, MS Dhoni and Suresh Raina to make India a strong force in international cricket.
4. 2005-06 - The Greg Chappell era
Ganguly brought former Australian captain and Greg Chappell to coach India after the successful tenure of John Wright. But the relation between Chappell and Ganguly soon soured beyond repair and the latter was soon dethroned from captaincy and was eventually dropped from the team. Rahul Dravid took over as captain.
5. 2007-08- Comeback and retirement
After Raina and Kaif failed to impress with the bat in Test, Ganguly was recalled and had a prolific 2007, scoring 1106 Test runs at 61.44 with three hundreds and four fifties and had also scored his maiden double hundred in Test cricket. In ODIs, he made 1240 runs at 44.28. In 2008, Ganguly announced his retirement ahead of the home series against Australia and played four Test matches. In his final series, Ganguly made 324 runs at 54. But he continued in the IPL with Kolkata Knight Riders and Pune Warriors for a couple of more seasons. He announced his retirement from IPL in 2012.
6. 2015 - Role of administrator
Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee announced Ganguly as the Cricket Association of Bengal president and was re-elected in 2018. He was also part of the Justice Mudgal Committee that was formed to probe the IPL spot-fixing scandal in 2013.
7. 2019 - BCCI President
Since his retirement and foray into cricket administration through CAB it has always been rumoured that Ganguly would try for the plum BCCI post. Finally, he is set to take over BCCI president after the Board AGM on October 23 at Mumbai.