Four major failures by Sourav Ganguly as Indian Cricket Board President

Sourav Ganguly’s tenure as the Indian Cricket Board president is all set to end as Roger Binny is about to be announced as his replacement. According to reports, the former Indian captain was lambasted by the Board at the meeting held in Delhi on Tuesday as his tenure was marred by several controversies. It was also reported that Ganguly was offered the position of the Indian T20 League Chairman but he denied the position.

Following this, the Indian Cricket Board have also backed off from supporting Ganguly to move to the Chairman position in the Apex Cricket Council. The decision to remove Ganguly from his position didn’t take place overnight as there were several incidents that eventually led to his sacking. Let’s take a look at four such incidents which marred Ganguly’s tenure at the top:

1. Lack of compassion towards Indian players

In May 2021, the captain of the Australian women's team, Lisa Sthalekar expressed her displeasure at Indian Cricket Board for failing to care for Veda Krishnamurthy when she lost her mother and sister due to COVID-19. She was also unhappy that the cricket board had not informed her of her expulsion before the upcoming trip to England.

There is still time to fix this!! pic.twitter.com/LT3hApMioJ

— Lisa Sthalekar (@sthalekar93) May 15, 2021

2. Failure of Indian T20 League management during the pandemic

After the 2020 Indian T20 League season was held in the UAE, the Indian Cricket Board sought to return the tournament to Indian soil in 2021. It was made to believe that the league's bio bubble was totally secure and that every player inside the bubble would be safe. However, it was soon found that a number of people, including the team bus drivers, were routinely breaking the safety rules.

The competition had to be suspended in the middle of it due to the rapid emergence of several positive cases of the COVID-19 virus within the bio bubble. Months later, the league started up again in the UAE, but not before it was revealed that the Indian Cricket Board had failed to keep the bio bubble intact.

3. Failing to pay First Class players on time

In his inaugural remarks as Indian Cricket Board president, Ganguly promised that the organisation would get an agreement framework for first-class cricket players. He also said that a new subcommittee would be established to handle their financial concerns. He was quoted as adding that in such days, taking care of first-class cricketers will be his first priority.

He was most concerned with protecting the first-class players' financial stability. However, during COVID-19, a number of players who earned the majority of their money from playing domestic cricket received postponed instalments, leaving them in a dilemma.

4. Disrespecting Virat Kohli with his forceful removal as ODI captain

Virat Kohli's departure as the Indian captain was poorly handled and downright embarrassing. Both Kohli and Ganguly were seen giving conflicting statements in the media. The way the stories of the entire incident leaked out a month before it actually occurred was rather shameful and only proved how untrustworthy the Indian Cricket Board management was.

Shots were fired, remarks were made, and Ganguly lied about what he said to Kohli after learning that the latter intended to resign, which made for some really bad PR.