BCCI lost face internationally: Sunil Gavaskar

Former Indian cricketer Sunil Gavaskar recently gave his opinions on the sacking of top BCCI officials and the Supreme Court verdict. He opined that amidst all the changes and the Supreme Court verdict, it is the face of BCCI that is lost somewhere down the line internationally. The credibility of the richest and the most powerful cricket board is lost in the entire tussle between the Lodha Committee and the BCCI.

However, Sunil Gavaskar added that the entire setup will undergo a change and a new face of Indian cricket will come up. In a conversation with NDTV, the former Indian cricketer quoted, “The BCCI has lost face internationally after this entire saga. We are in for a complete new era for Indian cricket.”

The Supreme Court verdict meant immediate sacking of Anurag Thakur and Ajay Shirke from the two top most positions of the BCCI. Speaking about this, Sunil Gavaskar said that the verdict has to be accepted. He added that the judgment was given way before and the apex court was only waiting for the compliance of it. He was happy for the fact that the players can now be a part of the decision-making in the state elections.

“Once the Supreme Court gives order, that has to be accepted. I think the judgement was given in July and the Supreme Court was waiting for the compliance. Show me an organisation which doesn’t have a scope for improvement but now the good thing is that the players will be able to take part in the state elections,” he quoted.

Also read – Sourav Ganguly favorite to replace Anurag Thakur as BCCI President

There are a lot of contenders in line to replace Anurag Thakur as the next BCCI President. The names of Sourav Ganguly, Shivlal Yadav and Brijesh Patel are the most prominent ones. But Gavaskar believes it is Sourav Ganguly who heads the list and is a clear top contender. He cited how Ganguly had transformed the Indian setup after it was jolted by match-fixing scandal 1999.

“BCCI has got a very good bench strength to take up the bigger roles and one name that comes to my mind is Sourav Ganguly. Remember, in 1999-2000 when Indian cricket was gripped by the match-fixing saga, Ganguly was given the Indian team captaincy and he turned it around,” he concluded.