Has Indian cricket hired Ganguly to make him puppet or master?

So finally the most recognisable face of cricket in Bengal has been put in charge of running the sport in the state. The appointment of the former Indian captain Sourav Ganguly, widely regarded as the progenitor of "Team India" as we know it today, as the Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB) president has been welcomed with great enthusiam not only in Bengal, but across the country, and already yards of newsprint have been used up, trying to figure out if the "Prince of Calcutta" can give Indian cricket a boost. "Dada" (elder brother), as Ganguly is fondly called, was the toast of the town on Twitter, as these tweets prove:

Don't know how politics in CAB plays out but Sourav Ganguly as prez could be a boon. Has desire & credentials to be be a fine administrator

— Cricketwallah (@cricketwallah) September 24, 2015

Sourav Ganguly - now the perfect all-rounder!

— Mohandas Menon (@mohanstatsman) September 24, 2015

Sourav Ganguly's next stop should be BCCI chief, then ICC boss. Can't think of a better man in terms of leadership, integrity, aggression

— Abhijit Majumder (@abhijitmajumder) September 24, 2015

Sourav Ganguly becomes the CAB president...like Kumble turned around Karnataka's fortunes...hoping for the same for Bengal.

— Aakash Chopra (@cricketaakash) September 25, 2015

Can he recreate the good things he did for cricket in the country as a captain, now as an administrator as well? That is the question people have been asking.

Whether Ganguly, will be able to do so only time will tell, but one can be pretty sure that infusing life into a lethargic cricket system won't be easy. Can an elephantine cricket bureaucracy, characterised by rampant corruption, inefficiency, mismanagement give Ganguly the respect that he deserves? The former Indian captain, with his progressive ideas can revolutionise the way the sport is run and played in the country, but would he be allowed to do so? A sense of foreboding is inevitable. Here is an individual who has played the game with rare distinction at the highest level and is often credited for instilling a sense of self-belief among a group of players who lacked confidence, but not talent. He taught his team to look the opposition in the eye and play to win, even in trying foreign conditions that used to overwhelm Indian sides of the past all too easily. The never-say-die approach helped India notch up many memorable victories, the most famous of them perhaps being winning the Adelaide Test in 2003-04 against an Australian side that was next to invincible at that time. Ganguly led from the front and had set up the series with a breathtaking hundred in the first Test at Brisbane. Ganguly's Team India showed in that series, which ended at one apiece, that it was made of stern stuff and followed it up with Test and ODI series victories in Pakistan.

What made Ganguly stand apart as a leader, however, was not simply the fact that he was a shrewd tactician, but a sense of impartiality. He was never a slave of parochialism, but for him only merit counted. That is how he was able to build a team, in the real sense of the term, that was ready to take on any challenge. It laid the foundation to Indian cricket's golden era that was to follow in which the team reached the pinnacle in both Tests and ODIs and won the T20 and ODI World Cups. Ganguly can also be commended for his eye for talent. Once he was certain that a player had it in him to "make it large", he backed him to the hilt. He nurtured players like Harbhajan Singh, Yuvraj Singh, Virender Sehwag, Mohammad Kaif and Zaheer Khan, all of whom went on to become the architects of Indian cricket's phenomenal rise in the first decade of the 21st century.

However, perhaps Ganguly's greatest contribution to Indian cricket has been sanitising the dressing room of the deleterious influence of bookies. Remember, Ganguly inherited a crown of thorns (don't Indian cricket captains always do?) and took over the reins of the Indian team at a time when cricket was being riven by the betting scandal and people were losing faith in their "heroes". But turning adversity into opportunity is a quality of great leaders and Ganguly proved to be one. He steered Indian cricket out of troubled waters and stitched together a world-beating team. That is no mean feat.

Even cricket bible Wisden showered praise on Ganguly, saying that he turned the Indian side from "stoic losers to chest-thumping warriors".

Whether Ganguly would be able to restore Indian cricket's glory is being asked ever since the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) appointed him, along with Sachin Tendulkar and VVS Laxman, as an advisor in June. It is beyond doubt that cricketing matters are best left in the hands of experts; and who better than Dada, who loves the game and genuinely thinks about its advancement?

So while Bengal cricket can expect a booster dose of vitamins with Dada taking over the reins, the former Indian captain is not merely a state-level figure, but a colossus of Indian, and indeed world cricket. Therefore, one hopes that Ganguly can become the "Dada" of BCCI and indeed the International Cricket Council (ICC) some time in the future, for that way cricket, in general, will be the biggest beneficiary. However, a worry remains if he will be allowed to function freely and implement his plans.

Anil Kumble and Javagal Srinath- two noted former cricketers who had been elected as the president and secretary of the Karnataka State Cricket Association (KSCA) respectively, had a bitter experience with cricket administration and had walked out of an annual general body meeting of the association, alleging misuse of funds. If such a thing happens in the CAB, one won't be surprised, for the popular perception (and not without reason) is that cricket boards and associations in the country are centres of political jousting and money-making, with only a scant attention for the sport. Undue politics is a bane for creativity, but sadly we Indians simply love our politics!

There won't be a dearth of people trying to bring Ganguly down. He is aware of that, having been at the receiving end of many such intrigue during his playing days. Would we see Ganguly walking out of a CAB meeting a'la Kumble and Srinath? It will be extremely unfortunate if that happens. Dada is a master of man-management, has considerable clout in Bengal and can endear himself to people. These would certainly go in his favour.

But the question remains: is our bumbling cricket system mature enough to afford a Ganguly?