From day-night Test to increased salaries — major decisions taken by Sourav Ganguly as BCCI President

The first-ever Day/Night Test was played in November 2015. However Indian cricket remained averse to hosting Day/Night Test for a long time. But soon after he became the board president, Ganguly gave green light to Day/Night Tests being played in India.  With Ganguly's backing, India hosted its first Day/Night Test at Kolkata's Eden Gardens in November 2019. It was a match against Bangladesh that India won by an innings and 46 runs. Since then India has hosted two more Day/Night Tests, one at the Narendra Modi Stadium in  Ahmedabad and the other at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bangalore.

In 2020, IPL got postponed from its usual schedule due to the COVID-19 pandemic. At that time, India was one of the hotspots and there were uncertainties about whether India will be able to host the tournament. It was under Ganguly's leadership that the BCCI and the IPL governing council decided to hold the premier T20 league tournament in the UAE in September/October of 2020.

IPL shifted its base to the UAE for 2020 and the T20 cricket league was successfully hosted in the gulf nation.

In 2021, IPL had to be stopped mid-way as the second wave of COVID-19 hit India hard. After a gap of a few months, IPL was again taken to the UAE and the remainder of the tournament was completed without any further hindrance.

With the popularity of the IPL growing, BCCI under Ganguly in 2021 decided to expand the premier T20 league tournament from eight teams to 10. BCCI invited bids for two new teams. The two new teams launched were the RP Sanjiv Goenka Group's Lucknow Super Giants and CVC Capital Partners' owned Gujarat Titans. The two new teams were included in the IPL ahead of the 2022 season and the tournament was successfully expanded to 10 teams.

The IPL was also due for its new broadcasting rights for the 2023-27 cycle. In June the BCCI held e-auctions for the media companies to pick the new media rights for the IPL for the 2023-27 period.  The auction lasted for three days as the media giants were locked in an intense bidding war. In the end, it was the BCCI and Indian cricket that walked away richer by Rs 48,390 crores. The new IPL media rights made the cricket league the second most valued sporting event in the world.

BCCI under Ganguly also looked after the payment of the domestic players. On assuming the post of BCCI president Ganguly had said that his biggest priority was to look after the first-class players. Ganguly kept his promise as in  September 2021 announced sizeable hikes in match fees for men and women at the end of its apex council meeting. The new pay structure, which came into effect for the 2021-22 domestic calendar, saw senior men earning between Rs. 40,000 and Rs. 60,000 per day while senior women will earn up to INR 20,000 per day.