BCCI's outgoing treasurer and next IPL chairman Arun Dhumal on Friday (October 14) opened up on Sourav Ganguly’s ouster as the board president, saying that "nobody spoke a word" against the former India skipper.
The next set of BCCI office bearers have filed their nomination and will be elected unopposed at the AGM on October 18.
A pivotal member of India's 1983 World Cup-winning team, Roger Binny will replace Ganguly as BCCI president. On the other hand, Jay Shah will get another term as the board secretary, Rajiv Shukla will hold the vice president post while Ashish Shelar and Devaijit Saikia will be the new treasurer and the new joint secretary respectively.
See Also: “I will go on to do bigger things,” says outgoing BCCI president Sourav Ganguly
"There has been no BCCI president who has served for more than three years in independent India. All this media speculation about Dada being told or a few members were against him, they are all baseless," Dhumal told PTI in an exclusive chat.
"Nobody spoke a word against him. All the Board members were extremely happy and satisfied with the entire team and how BCCI was run in the last three years despite the challenges posed by COVID-19.
"Dada has had a very distinguished career as an India captain, one of the best ever leaders. As an administrator he took the entire team along and we worked as one team," he added.
Dhumal further said that he would not have been part of the new team had Ganguly accepted the IPL chairmanship.
"Dada was there along with Roger and the new set of people who went to file the nomination. Everything was discussed and Dada was also spoken to. He was offered IPL chairmanship, else Roger would never have had a chance, he is 67 (age limit being 70).
"He has been a World Cup winner for us, that was the view of the house. If Dada accepted IPL chairmanship, I would have been out. And I would have been okay with that. Roger is a great addition keeping in mind the ODI World Cup at home next year," said Dhumal.
A number of conspiracy theories are doing rounds ever since the news of Ganguly's exit surfaced in the media, but Dhumal clarified that there was no politics behind it.
"There is no truth to that. People may have different ideologies as we live in a democracy. When it comes to BCCI everyone's focus is on how to take Indian cricket forward."
Reflecting on his tenure as the BCCI treasurer, Dhumal said the high point was two new IPL teams fetching more than Rs 12000 crore and the IPL media rights a staggering Rs 48390 crore for the next five years.
"We followed the most transparent bidding process. Even those who could not buy teams appreciated it," he said.
Commenting on the new dispensation, he added: "Out of the five officer bearers three are new ones including the president, joint secretary and treasurer. This was after discussion with all the members.
"It is also about maintaining a balance and grooming new people for the future so that the board can run efficiently going forward. If the entire set of office bearers continued then nobody could be trained. It is a much smaller body now (after change of constitution)."
(With PTI inputs)
