Will Sourav Ganguly Throw His Hat In The Race For ICC Chairmanship?

Sourav Ganguly and Jay Shah have BCCI term two after the Supreme Court accepted the board's plea for an amendment in the cooling off period clause on Wednesday. But Ganguly may be in line for a bigger role. Sources in the BCCI have indicated to NDTV that the former Indian Captain could take on the ICC chairman's role, come November. The elections are due to the world's supreme cricket body with the incumbent, Greg Barkley's term ending soon. During the Annual Conference in Birmingham, Barkley had expressed his interests of carrying on for two more years.

The procedure to elect the new chief was decided at the Birmingham conference. A two-thirds majority is no longer necessary to elect the chairman. The recent proposal says, the winner will be the competitor who receives 51% of the votes. In a 16-member board, the candidate needs just nine votes from the directors to get elected.

Sources have told NDTV that BCCI IS now backing Ganguly for the top post.

If Ganguly manages to garner the votes, he will empty the BCCI seat. That is likely to be filled up by Jay Shah, the incumbent BCCI secretary and Arun Dhumal becomes the secretary.

NDTV learns that a large number of associations are in favour of Shah taking up BCCI's top post.

If Ganguly does become the ICC chairman then he will become the fifth Indian to take the top post in the organisation. Before him, N Srinivasan and Shashank Manohar had served as ICC chairman.

Jagmohan Dalmiya and Sharad Pawar were ICC presidents earlier when that post was ICC's top chair.