New Delhi: Outgoing BCCI president Sourav Ganguly said Thursday that he will move on to do “bigger things” after relinquishing his chair to India’s 1983 World Cup hero Roger Binny next week.
At a Bandhan Bank event in Kolkata, the cricketer-turned-administrator said he didn’t “look at the past”, but only believed in the moment.
“I have been the president of the BCCI and I will go on to do bigger things,” the former India captain said.
Ex-India selector Roger Binny is set to replace Ganguly as the cricket body’s 36th president at the BCCI’s annual general meeting on 18 October.
Jay Shah, son of Union Home Minister Amit Shah, will continue as BCCI Secretary for his second consecutive term. Shah is also likely to replace Ganguly as India’s representative at the all-powerful International Cricket Council (ICC).
Ganguly had a lot of meetings with the powers that be in New Delhi, and was “keen to continue as BCCI president”. However, he was apparently told that there was no precedent of giving a second term to the Board president.
“Sourav was offered the IPL chairmanship but he politely declined the offer. His logic was that he could not accept becoming the head of a sub-committee in the BCCI after heading the same institution,” a BCCI source had said.
Ganguly, who was appointed Bandhan Bank’s brand ambassador Thursday, also said: “You can’t be a player forever, you can’t be an administrator forever. It’s been great doing both.”
“I was the president of the Cricket Association of Bengal for five years. After all these terms, you have to leave and go. As an administrator, you have to contribute a lot and make things better for the team. As a player, I was around for a long time and understood this. I enjoyed my time as an administrator thoroughly,” he added.
Also read: Roger Binny to replace Sourav Ganguly as BCCI’s new President