Ganguly has the political skills needed to lead ICC in future, says former England captain Gower

Former England skipper David Gower feels current Board of Control for Cricket in India chief Sourav Ganguly has the right skills to lead the International Cricket Council in the future.

Gower is impressed with Ganguly’s leadership abilities: “One thing I have learnt over the years is that if you are going to run BCCI, you need to be many, many things,” Gower said in a chat show presented by GloFans.

“Having a reputation like he [Ganguly] has is a very good start, but you need to be a very deft politician. You need to have control of a million different things.”

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Gower reckons being president of the BCCI is the toughest job in world cricket by a fair distance. “And of course, you need to be responsible for a game that is followed by, I mean, should we say a billion people in India,” he said.

“We all know about the immense following for cricket in India. So it is indeed a wonderful thing to behold. Sourav has the toughest task imaginable in charge of BCCI, but so far I would say the signs are very good.

“He has listened, given his own opinion and has pulled strings gently. He is a very, very good man and has those political skills. He has the right attitude and can keep things together and will do good job. And if you do a good job as BCCI chief in the future, who knows?

“But I would actually say the more important job, to be honest, is running BCCI. Being head of ICC is an honour, there is a lot that can be done by ICC, but actually look at the rankings, look at where the power is heading up. BCCI is definitely the bigger job,” Gower added.

On the cricketing front, Gower believes World Test Championship has given the format much-needed context.

The Englishman said: “The idea of this World Test Championship has come about for one very simple reason that people are worried about the survival of Tests. Back in the seventies, eighties, I don’t think we needed context to be fair.

“Test cricket was very much more obviously the most important format and if there was anything to be judged by, it was the performances in Test matches both as an individual and as a team.”