Ex-cricketer hands 15-plus 'conflicted' individuals list to BCCI ombudsman for action

Conflict of Interest has become a clear case of violating priority in Indian cricket and has been served to few, while many have been carrying out dual, at times triple role, without any punishment. Sourav Ganguly’s case has become a case study in that count and BCCI ombudsman, who also doubles up as its ethics officer, asked the former to deposit in front of himself. Further, Sachin Tendulkar and VVS Laxman were also served notice for their dual role of members of Cricket Advisory committee and mentors of various franchises. 

In that regard, a former Indian cricketer, being quizzed by the Supreme Court-appointed ombudsman for potential conflict of interest, is learnt to have handed over a list of 15-plus individuals to the ethics officer of the BCCI this week. 

However, the ex-cricketer, when contacted by ToI, has denied submitting any such list but BCCI sources told the publication, "Wait till notices start being served to all the names mentioned in the list. It is going to happen very soon."

Sources also revealed that the intention of handing over the list of individuals stems from the perspective that "only specific people are being targeted for handling multiple roles in Indian cricket while many others are being ignored because they're not in the eye of the media".

"When you talk about tractable and intractable disclosure of the conflict, Sridhar's case is one that needs to be looked into. While in the job, he had disclosed that he owned (cricket) clubs in Hyderabad. Despite the disclosure, he was asked to quit his job. He was a depressed man, couldn't take it well. What wrong did he do? Why was he sacked?" say sources in the board.

On being asked about the Ganguly-Tendulkar-Laxman “conflict of interest”, the source commented, "Why is nobody asking the COA if the CAC continues to exist in the first place? Have they kept in touch with members of CAC on matters of cricket? Has the COA sat with the CAC to discuss what their job entails? For all practical purposes, it's a defunct committee," said BCCI sources.

"Ganguly’s case is something the ombudsman needs to look into. How can the president of a state association be employed with an IPL franchise? The more shocking bit is Ganguly accompanying this franchise to play a game at a stadium that is run by an association he heads. That's conflict.”