Sunil Gavaskar, if as suggested by the Supreme Court of India, becomes the BCCI chief, will not be the first former Test cricketer to don the hat for the national body. Arjuna Ranatunga (Sri Lanka) and Wesley Hall (West Indies) have done so in the past.
Sunil Gavaskar can become a good administrator, believes Arjuna, the former Sri Lankan player, who played 93 Tests, and 269 ODIs’. The World Cup winning captain Arjuna was appointed as chairman of the Sri Lanka Cricket board in January 2008 but his tenure didn’t last long. He was removed by the ministry in December the same year after his controversial tenure in which he took several decisions that were not favoured.
He says, “I believe that cricketers who have played for the country with pride, passion and dignity would never allow this great game to be destroyed and country’s image to be disgraced.”
“I expect Sunil Gavaskar to make use of this opportunity, if all works out well to review and resurrect the lost respect to the BCCI. Sunil is coming from an era where representing the country was the ultimate objective and commercial aspects were never a consideration in players’ minds.
“I am hopeful that he will represent the matters of all cricket playing nations at the ICC, which will offer a level playing field to every country based on performance rather than revenues.”
