The BCCI President Sourav Ganguly has quashed rumours of influencing selectors headed by former cricketer Chetan Sharma during team meetings. Incidentally, the BCCI has been hit by quite a few controversies in the recent past and is showing no signs to bury down.
It all started after Virat Kohli was autocratically stripped of leadership duties in the ODIs after he stepped down from the shortest format after India’s exit from the ICC T20 World Cup.
While the speculations showed some signs of dying, Ganguly’s picture of sitting with the selectors and Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma went viral. Many claimed that he attends selection meetings to put pressure on the selectors and also influences selections.
Sourav Ganguly has quashed all such ‘baseless accusations.’ clarified that the picture doing rounds on social media is not of any selection meetings. Speaking to PTI, the former India captain said:
“I don’t think I need to answer anybody anything (on this) and dignify any of these baseless accusations. I am the president of BCCI and I do the job of what the president of BCCI should be doing. Also just to let you know, I see a picture doing the rounds (of social media) showing me sitting in a selection committee meeting.”
Sourav Ganguly added:
“I want to make it clear, that picture (where Ganguly can be seen sitting with secretary Jay Shah, skipper Virat Kohli and joint secretary Jayesh George) wasn’t from a selection committee meeting. Jayesh George isn’t a part of selection committee meetings. (I have played) 424 international matches for India. Not a bad idea at times to remind people about it, isn’t it? (laughs).”
“He is a very dear friend” – Sourav Ganguly on relationship with Jay Shah
Speaking on his relationship with the BCCI secretary Jay Shah, Sourav Ganguly said that the entire BCCI office-bearers share a cordial relationship with each other.
“I share a fantastic relationship with Jay. He is a very dear friend and a trusted colleague. Me, Jay, Arun (Dhumal) and Jayesh (George), we have all been working together to get the board going in these difficult times especially with COVID-19 in these two years. To make sure that cricket happens. I would say it has been a fantastic two years. We have all done it as a team,” Ganguly added.