Champions don't finish that easily: Ganguly on Dhoni

After becoming the 39th President of Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), former skipper Sourav Ganguly on Wednesday shed light on wicket-keeper MS Dhoni's future in the side and said he would communicate with the Ranchi born star to handle the matter in a proper manner.

"I do not know what is in his mind and what he thinks about his career, we will deal with that. He is one of the greats of the game. India is very proud to have MS Dhoni. When you sit down and take note of what he has done, you say wow. Champions don't finish that easily. Till I am around, everybody will be respected. That does not change," Ganguly told reporters.

 

The ongoing Vijay Hazare trophy has been criticised for rules and regulations related to bad weather conditions and abandonment of matches. The tournament has seen inclement weather for the majority of group stage games.

Punjab had to bear the brunt of inclement weather as they were not able to progress to the semi-final stage. Former cricketer Yuvraj Singh had also criticised rules that are in place for the domestic tournament.

Ganguly, however, said that all the rules were sent to state associations before the start of the tournament. He also compared the situation to the World Cup final this year, which saw New Zealand missing out on the trophy on the basis of boundary countback rule.

"These are rules. At the end of the day, when Vijay Hazare trophy started all the rules were sent to all state associations. It is a similar thing to what happened at the World Cup final. When New Zealand won, everyone started to jump up and down at the rules, they were aware of the rules, it was just unfortunate they were on the wrong side of it," Ganguly said.

"When it comes to Vijay Hazare, the rules were whoever had more points would go through to semis. The pertinent point is whether a reserve day could be put in place for knockouts. Whatever happened was on the basis of the rules," he added.

The BCCI has been bogged down by several complaints related to the conflict of interest. Former cricketers such as Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar have been handed notices over this issue. Ganguly said that the rule needs to be changed and modified.

"Conflict of interest rule has to change boss. The CoA has already put it in Supreme Court, we just need to see how it gets modified," Ganguly said.

Ganguly was elected as the president during the General Body Meeting at the BCCI headquarters. Ganguly was the only candidate to file his nomination for the post and was elected unopposed.

Also, today was the last day of the CoA in the office. The Supreme Court on Tuesday directed that the tenure of the CoA for the BCCI administration will end after the election of new office bearers.

A bench of the apex court, headed by Justice S A Bobde, directed that no proceedings would be initiated against the CoA without prior permission from it. Once the BCCI elections get over, the CoA will be handing over the charge to the new body.