Heartening to see a sportsman in the role of sports administration: Rajyavardhan Rathore

Former Sports minister of India Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore has praised the appointment of Sourav Ganguly as the president of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI).

The tenure for Sourav Ganguly is the next nine months as it ends the reign of a very controversial, Supreme Court-appointed Committee of Administrators (COA). He is the 39^th BCCI president and his assignation was finalized last week. His predecessor was C K Khanna, who was the interim head since 2017.

Ganguly’s leadership qualities are unparalleled and one of the challenges that face him is to make sure the past scandals don’t come up again. BCCI suffered heavily after the 2013 IPL scandal and one of his priorities will be to make sure that diminishes from the view.

The former sports minister tweeted :

Rathore rose to prominence when he won the silver at the 2004 Athens Olympics. This was the country’s first-ever individual silver at the Olympics. And in 2006, he won a bronze at the World Championships held in Spain for only the top 12 shooters on the planet. He racked up 25 international medals at various championships for Double Trap from 2002 and 2006.

In 2011, Rathore won gold at the Asian Clay Target Championship which was held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Rathore was also part of the Army. His final rank was Colonel, as he’s served in the Kargil War and participated in counter-terrorist operations in Jammu and Kashmir. Graduate of the National Defence Academy (NDA), he was awarded the Sword of Honor for the best all-round Gentleman Cadet.

Having served as the Sports Minister himself, a role in which he was exemplary, Rathore knows what it takes to be successful in an administrative role and just how much having a sports background can help.