News analysis by Pallab Bhattacharya
The elevation of former Indian cricket captain Sourav Ganguly as the President of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has set the tongues wagging in political circles in New Delhi as well as Kolkata. The question being widely asked: is it the stepping stone to something bigger on the political scene in West Bengal where fresh assembly elections are due in 2021?
“One thing is certain: Sourav lambi race ka ghoda” (Sourav is the horse in a long race),” said political sources. What has set off speculations is his meeting with Indian Home Minister and Bharatiya Janata Party President Amit Shah, the closest aide of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi on Saturday last hours before he agreed to be the consensus choice of various state cricket associations to head the world’s richest cricket body.
True, as of now, Sourav’s stint as the BCCI chief is only for nine to ten months. But that is a time span long enough to warrant changes in Indian sports whose administration has always been entwined with politics and politicians. And for Sourav, it is not any other sport but cricket whose popularity places the game next only to religion in India. That makes it an ideal spring board for the launch of a political career. Besides, who knows things could change at the BCCI and Sourav’s tenure at the helm of Indian cricket administration could stretch longer.
There is speculation that the BJP is on the lookout for a credible Chief Ministerial face with a high degree of popularity across various sections of society in the next West Bengal assembly elections. True, Sourav is a political greenhorn without an ideological baggage. That could make eminently flexible and suitable to fit into a new political role—a rich Hindu brahmin ‘bhadrolok.’ Sourav’s lack of political experience may not be a handicap for him if the entire party apparatus works for him.
As far as acceptability to the people is concerned, Sourav has the big advantage of not having to begin from scratch. Even after his retirement from cricket, he has never been out of public mind as he has remained a highly popular face anchoring a few TV quiz shows, appearing in some commercial product endorsements and other programmes and doing cricket commentary.
Secondly, Sourav comes to the job of BCCI President with the experience of four years as the head of Cricket Association of Bengal. The stint at the BCCI will give more administrative experience before a possible shift to a much higher level. Soon after it became clear that he will be the next BCCI President, Sourav has already begun making the right kind of pitch that could help him politically.
He said his first priority as the Cricket Board head would be the plight of cricketers in domestic first class competitions which are the nurseries of players aspiring to make it to the highest level of the game. If Sourav implements his pledge, it would pit him in direct contact with the aspirational youth particularly in West Bengal at the grassroot level and add to his popularity. He cannot possibly unmindful of the fact that he himself had risen from the grassroot to captain Indian cricket with phenomenal success.
Can the ‘maharaja’ of Kolkata or “dada”, as he is popularly called, can make cricket and politics gel into a heady blend that could catapult him in a new terrain? Only time will tell.
