Sourav Ganguly, one of India’s most successful captains, became the 39th President of the BCCI in 2019. After taking over as BCCI president, the prince of Kolkata indicated in his trademark aggressive style that ‘performance’ will be the most important parameter upon which the team will be judged. “Performance is the most important thing and will decide the future of Indian cricket,” he had said. However, three years into his tenure, it appears that the ‘performance’ criteria have been replaced by the ability to garner ‘woke points’. The question also goes to BCCI secretary Jay Shah, who could have avoided this move of the Indian Cricket team.
It all transpired on Sunday (October 24) during the India-Pakistan clash, after the national anthems of the respective teams. The two Indian openers sauntered across the turf to open the batting. However, a momentary confusion ensued as Rohit Sharma and KL Rahul looked towards the dressing room as if waiting for some kind of signal.
The confusion leading up to the act
The commentators were perplexed, so were the viewers, before it became clear that the Indian openers were seeking the nod to go ahead and take a knee for the Black Lives Movement campaign.
This is beyond funny. Rohit Sharma the captain of Mumbai Indians owned by Mukesh Ambani went to ask Pakistani Captain about taking the knee but he refused and instead said we will put hand on heart. https://t.co/8JQBAugZ0O
— Rahul Sahu (@iRahulSahu) October 24, 2021
After 30-seconds of confusion, the two openers knelt while the entire Indian squad, behind the boundary lines, sat on one knee. The Pakistani team didn’t take the knee but crossed their hands and placed it on their hearts. The confusion amongst the Indian camp meant that the decision was taken at the eleventh hour with little to no consultation with the players.
Kohli got the stick but Ganguly was spared
With the Indian side having few Social Justice Warriors in its ranks, it doesn’t take much to join the dots as to who would have orchestrated the entire act. While Virat Kohli, the team skipper, rightfully got the stick for allowing it to happen, not many questioned Ganguly.
It looked certain that BCCI under Ganguly would be free of the malice that plagued his predecessors and the private organisation. However, on the contrary, it is under Ganguly that the Indian cricket team has yielded and taken the knee to support the Black Lives Movement campaign, all whilst being disconnected from reality.
Without BCCI’s nod, which is run by Ganguly, not a single decision can be passed, let alone taking the all-important call of taking the knee. The movement was aimed for the betterment of blacks in the states but what the Indian team did was simply an empty re-enactment of a Western symbolic gesture, that reeked of an inferiority complex.
The woke athletes of the team wanted the participation trophy by aping a movement that would make absolutely no impact. While the West barely acknowledged their act, the cricketers, instead, received bucketful of criticism.
Read More: Indian Cricket Team took the knee for Blacks, slain Hindus in Bangladesh have no takers
Kneel, but for the Hindus
If they indeed wanted to make a difference, they could have stood for the killing of innocent Hindus in Bangladesh, or for that matter, West Bengal – Ganguly’s home state. But with big PR agencies handling the contracts of megastars of the Indian team, and Hindu lives being inconsequential, taking the knee for them would not have made an impact from the financial point of view, and thus the cricketers stayed put.
Sourav Ganguly is a legend of the game and an administrator par excellence but it doesn’t mean he is outside the ambit of criticism. Under him, the Indian team took an illogical and ill-judged decision and he needs to own up to it. All is not lost and the BCCI president can make up for it by not allowing the team to kneel down or if they do want to fulfill their progressive agenda, don’t kneel but stand for the Bangladeshi Hindus. That would suffice.