Ganguly’s meeting with Mamata sparks rumours

Former Indian cricket skipper Sourav Ganguly has met West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, leading to intense speculation that he may join the fray for the post of president of the Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB).

The post fell vacant following the demise of Jagmohan Dalmiya. Ganguly, who is a joint secretary of the CAB, arrived at the State Secretariat along with Dalmiya’s son Avishek. The meeting with Mamata lasted nearly an hour. When asked by media in India Ganguly, however, refused to comment. “To discuss something like this (a few days after Dalmiya’s death) is not right. Speculation will be on, someone will run CAB. It is too early to comment,” he told reporters after the meeting.

Recalling his close association with Dalmiya, Ganguly said that he had lost somebody very dear to him. “ I’ve grown up before him. I had a very personal relation with Dalmiya. He was very special to me,” he added.

Meanwhile, BCCI secretary Anurag Thakur has also started his back-channel talks with eastern units.

It has been learnt that Thakur has called up members of few of the eastern unit factions to check what’s in their mind as he is pitching for Rajeev Shukla’s name for presidency.

Interestingly, it must be recalled that last time when Shukla fought an election was for treasurer’s post during last AGM and lost to Srinivasan loyalist Aniruddh Chaudhary.

Shukla, on his part, was non-committal about his chances of being the next president of BCCI.

“How can I say anything on this right now? I don’t want to speak on it,” Shukla told reporters at the AGM of Uttar Pradesh Cricket Association (UPCA) in Kanpur.