Ganguly elected BCCI chief

MUMBAI: Former captain Sourav Ganguly Wednesday vowed to clean up Indian cricket as he was elected president of the sport’s rich and powerful but troubled national board.Cricket’s massive popularity in India has made the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) by far the wealthiest of all the national boards, netting massive sums from sponsorship and TV deals. But it has also been embroiled in a series of scandals, including accusations of corruption and match-fixing that tarnished the Indian Premier League (IPL) — the country’s lucrative Twenty20 extravaganza.The appointment of the 47-year-old Ganguly — for an initial 10 months only — at a meeting in Mumbai on Wednesday ends more than two years of a committee appointed by India’s top court overseeing the board’s affairs.“It’s an honour that I have been asked to take this role by the members when it’s a new start for the BCCI,” Ganguly, wearing his India captains blazer, said in his first address as BCCI chief.“Things need to be brought back in place, reforms need to done, huge amounts of money to be paid to state associations.“It’s a challenge and I’ll do it the way I know. The way which I feel is best for BCCI with no compromise on credibility, corruption-free and same-for-all BCCI. That’s the way I led India and that’s the way I will take forward this organisation with whatever time I have.”A corruption and match-fixing scandal in the sixth edition of the IPL in 2013 brought about the downfall of the boards then-president Narayanaswami Srinivasan after his son-in-law was accused of betting on matches.The appointment of his successor Anurag Thakur and his number two Ajay Shirke was seen as representing a break with the past.

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