Dalmiya weak, Sourav buzz grows !!

Jan. 29: Two months after Anil Kumble came to head the Karnataka State Cricket Association, there’s speculation over Sourav Ganguly offering himself as a candidate for the top post in the Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB) elections later this year.

Traditionally, the AGM is held in July.

So, will it then be exit one-time czar Jagmohan Dalmiya; enter Sourav, India’s most successful Test captain? After the India-England World Cup match controversy, which has enraged Calcuttans and embarrassed the state, that is a reasonably strong possibility.

Dalmiya hasn’t, of course, indicated he’d like to declare his long innings closed. Neither has Sourav said anything publicly. But both are bound to come under pressure for very different reasons: one to step aside, the other to take guard in a new role.

At 70, Dalmiya is vulnerable. Sourav, on the other hand, has thrived in pressure situations. Even Greg Chappell would have to give that to him.

Sourav, 38, has the potential to turn things around and inject energy into the CAB. Kumble, incidentally, is 40.

According to well-placed sources of The Telegraph, those currently calling the shots in the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) had been wanting Sourav to mount a challenge back in 2009, months after his India career ended.

He didn’t for two reasons: (a) not wanting to fight Dalmiya, a mentor at one time, and (b) there were IPL commitments to fulfil.

Sourav won’t have to take on Dalmiya if the veteran (who has held every major position in world cricket) decides to call it a day. As for the IPL factor, Sourav is without a franchise and, surely, has already played his last match of any consequence.

Bottom line is that he has to bite the bullet.

So far, the closest that Sourav has come to opposing Dalmiya, that too in an oblique manner, was when he backed Prasun Mukherjee on the eve of the 2006 elections in the CAB.

It turned out to be a bad move, as the then commissioner of police, despite having the benefit of the state machinery, failed to unseat Dalmiya.

With no second-rung leadership worth its name in the CAB, it shouldn’t be much of a problem if Sourav does decide to contest. But he’ll have to be wary of the chota moguls, who control a chunk of the 121 votes.

They don’t have the vision, but are big on ambition. Hardly the right combination for a body in urgent need of a makeover.

The Eden is getting a new look, but what about the CAB itself?

Apparently, a key BCCI official recently sent a message to Sourav on the lines of “you’ve got to take a call, not that everything comes on a platter...”

Dalmiya’s relations with the BCCI have improved in recent times, but it has been powered by circumstances.

It would be wrong to assume that president Shashank Manohar and president-elect Narayanswamy Srinivasan actually trust Dalmiya. Equally, it can’t be taken for granted he trusts them entirely.

Manohar and Srinivasan would be much happier doing business with a fresh face, a Sourav, for example.

To talk of Kumble, another distinguished former captain, he defeated Mysore royal Srikanta Datta Narasimharaja Wadiyar by a rather narrow margin — 40. His team, though, won big.

However, that Kumble just about made it, personally, confirmed that there were no guarantees anywhere.

Posted in: