Bengal Cricket: Sourav Ganguly re-elected as CAB President

Former India captain Sourav Ganguly was re-elected as the CAB president by the Electoral Officer of the Cricket Association of Bengal on Thursday. The Ganguly-led five-member panel won uncontested as Ganguly is all set remain the President of the CAB till atleast July 2020 before entering into a cooling-off period as per the BCCI constitution. The annual general meeting of the CAB will take place on Saturday this week.

Susanta Ranjan Upadhaya said in a document released by CAB.

"I, Electoral Officer of The Cricket Association of Bengal do hereby declare and certify that the following persons have stood uncontested to the following posts."

For three years, Ganguly was the part of the working committee of the CAB after which he took over the as the Joint Secretary in 2014, before finally taking over the role of CAB President for the first time in 2015, following Jagmohan Dalmiya’s demise.

Jagmohan Dalmiya’s son, Avishek Dalmiya will take over as the Secretary from his post of Joint Secretary. Debabrata Das will be the acting Joint Secretary, with Debashis Ganguly all set to become the Treasurer after the AGM on Saturday.

CAB Panel

President: Sourav Ganguly

Vice-president: Naresh Ojha

Secretary: Avishek Dalmiya

Joint Secretary: Debabrata Das

Treasurer: Debasish Ganguly

The announcement will be looked at closely by the BCCI ombudsman as Ganguly had earlier been asked to reply over the allegations of conflict of interest in his role as an advisor of Delhi based franchise Delhi Capitals while simultaneously serving as the President of the CAB. Three West Bengal based cricket fans, Ranjit Seal, Abhijeet Mukherjee and Bhaswati Shantua had put forth separate allegations in front of ethics officer Justice (Retd) DK Jain.

During those allegations, Ganguly said, as per excerpts of the letter available with PTI:

“In my respectful submission there is no direct or indirect interest, compromising roles, commercial conflict, prior relationship or position of influence within the meaning of the BCCI Constitution which may deter my involvement with the Delhi Capitals (IPL) cricket”