The Board of Control for Cricket in India’s outgoing treasurer and the next IPL chairman, Arun Dhumal, on Friday explained why Sourav Ganguly did not get another term as the Board president.

Dhumal also claimed that “nobody spoke a word” against the former India captain during the Board meeting.

The next set of BCCI office-bearers have filed their nominations and will be elected unopposed on October 18.World Cup winner Roger Binny will replace Ganguly as the president, Jay Shah will remain the secretary, Rajeev Shukla will get another term as vice-president, Ashish Shelar will be the new treasurer and Devaijit Saikia the new joint secretary.

Arun Dhumal. File picture

Dhumal said Sourav was party to all the decisions made before the nominations were filed.

“There has been no BCCI president who has served for more than three years in independent India. All this media speculation about Dada being told or a few members were against him, they are all baseless,” Dhumal said.

“Nobody spoke a word against him. All the Board members were extremely happy and satisfied with the entire team and how BCCI was run in the last three years despite the challenges posed by Covid-19.

“Dada has had a very distinguished career as an India captain, one of the best-ever leaders. As an administrator, he took the entire team along and we worked as one team,” he added.

Dhumal also went on to say that he would not have been part of the new team had Sourav accepted the IPL chairmanship.

The former India captain did not take the offer and now Dhumal will replace Brijesh Patel as the next IPL chairman.

“Dada was there along with Roger and the new set of people who went to file the nomination. Everything was discussed and Dada was also spoken to. He was offered IPL chairmanship, else Roger would never have had a chance, he is 67 (age limit being 70).

“He has been a World Cup winner for us, that was the view of the house. If Dada accepted the IPL chairmanship, I would have been out. And I would have been okay with that. Roger is a great addition keeping in mind the ODI World Cup at home next year,” said Dhumal.

Dhumal said the high point of his tenure was two new IPL teams fetching more than Rs 12,000 crore and the IPL media rights a staggering Rs 48,390 crore for the next five years.

“We followed the most transparent bidding process. Even those who could not buy teams appreciated it,” he said. Talking about the new dispensation, he added: “Out of the five office-bearers, three are new ones... This was after discussions with all the members.”

Written with inputs from PTI