Cricket: Ganguly, Gavaskar to be offered honorary membership by ICA

The Indian Cricketers’ Association (ICA) is looking to have several former Indian cricketers in its fold, especially the BCCI President-elect Sourav Ganguly and Sunil Gavaskar. According to sources, the ICA President Ashok Malhotra has expressed the recently formed institution's desire to offer both the legendary players honorary membership.

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Eliminating conflict-of-interest

Malhotra said that the body would be sending invites to both Ganguly and Gavaskar. He noted that it was unimaginable to have a cricket body without the participation from the legends of the game. With Ganguly becoming the BCCI President soon, his presence will benefit the ICA, Malhotra added. Commenting on the honorary membership, Malhotra said that the ICA would hand them honorary membership to avoid any form of conflict.

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The ICA currently has 1500 members and Malhotra was elected its president unopposed. Meanwhile, Anshuman Gaekwad defeated Kirti Azad and Rakesh Dhurve to be the ICA's representative at the BCCI Apex Council. Shantha Rangaswamy is the women's representative of ICA in BCCI.  Hitesh Majumdar is the Secretary and V Krishnamurthy has been appointed the Treasurer.

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It is the first time that BCCI has recognized a players’ body following the recommendation of the Lodha Panel. ICA is an organization formed explicitly for the retired players and is not affiliated to the Federation of International Cricketers’ Association. The inaugural meeting of the ICA was held at the BCCI headquarters on October 16 where it was decided that the association’s foremost objective would be to look after the interests of former cricketers. The association is also reportedly contemplating revising the pension of former cricketers. Malhotra said that he wanted to ensure that cricketers who have played even a single game at the first-class level are eligible to get a pension. He added that the body would be reworking the amount of pension for former players.

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