Former India skipper and current BCCI President Sourav Ganguly has played down the rumours of him becoming the next ICC Chairman. However, he didn’t deny standing in the election for the top position at the apex council of cricket.
In the recent weeks, there have been huge rounds of talks about Ganguly not only being confirmed to stand in the ICC Chairman election, but also being backed to win the post. This has also been linked with Jay Shah, the current Secretary of BCCI, becoming the next BCCI President as Ganguly hunts for the role at the ICC.
In July, the ICC Board approved the process to elect the next chairman, the elections to be held in November. After the meeting in Birmingham, it was decided that the tenure of Greg Barclay, the current ICC chair, will come to an end later this year, and the next ICC chair will be decided by a simple majority. The term of the Chair will be for a two-year period between December 1, 2022, to November 30, 2024.
Sourav Ganguly is likely to become the new ICC chairman
Ganguly was asked about him becoming the next ICC chairman, the former India captain told PTI: “ICC chairmanship is not in my hands.”
The ICC Board has decided that a two-thirds majority is no longer required to be elected as the chairman. According to the latest recommendations, the contestant getting 51 per cent votes will be elected as the winner; this means that in a 16-member board, the candidate needs just nine votes from the directors to get elected.
On September 14, the Supreme Court agreed to allow the amendments in the cooling-off restrictions for BCCI and state officials, thereby allowing both BCCI President, Sourav Ganguly and the BCCI Secretary, Jay Shah, to extend their respective tenures (or stay at BCCI) till 2025.
Jay Shah backed by state associations to take BCCI President’s post
And whilst Ganguly might move to the ICC, Shah is in line to replace the former as the BCCI President. The Indian Express reported that Jay Shah could be BCCI’s next boss with as many as 15 state associations backing him for the top job.
It’s high time Shah takes charge of the Indian board, and all associations are ready to back him,” a key member of a state association was reported as saying. The state associations are in praise of Shah for managing to conduct the IPL in the past three seasons amid the pandemic..
