Former India captain Sourav Ganguly on Friday said, with regard to the alleged conflict of interest in the posts he and former India teammates Sachin Tendulkar and V. V. S. Laxman hold, that the Board of Control for Cricket in India’s rules should be “practical” and that there should be clarity.
“I wouldn’t say an exception be made to the rule, (but) the rule has to be practical and what is conflict of interest? Today Rahul Dravid is appointed NCA (National Cricket Academy) head and there are issues about his conflict of interest of his job with India Cements. So you have got to be practical on that.
"You never know whether you would become NCA head or not. Three years later you may not remain NCA head. But these jobs are permanent and jobs remain with you. So it’s got to be practically solved,” Ganguly said at a promotional event organised by My11Circle.
Earlier this week, the Committee of Administrators that administers the day-to-day functioning of the BCCI had conducted a session on the conflict of interest issue, where Ganguly had batted for clarity.
The former India captain was issued notice by BCCI ombudsman justice D. K. Jain after receiving complaints of conflict of interest for his roles as a commentator, advisor to the Delhi Capitals Indian Premier League franchise and chief of the Cricket Association of Bengal.
“Even when you do commentary or coaching, I don’t see it as a conflict of interest. When you go around the world, look at Ricky Ponting, he coaches Australia, he commentates. He is commentating in the Ashes and now in the month of April next year he will be with Delhi Capitals (as coaching staff). I really don’t consider this as a conflict of interest,” Ganguly said.
“These are all skill-based. You don’t decide whether you commentate or whether you coach or you are part of a franchise, because of your skill you get picked by people, and I don’t think it can be a conflict. It has to be bit more precise, otherwise everything is going to be a conflict,” the former India captain said.
On Thursday, the M. S. K. Prasad-led committee zeroed in on Vikram Rathour for the role of India’s batting coach. But his appointment will only be approved once he clears the conflict of interest rules.
Commenting on that, Ganguly said: “I was reading in the newspaper that there is the issue of Vikram (Rathour) now with conflict with Ashish Kapoor being a junior selector, I find it ridiculous. If somebody else is a junior selector and somebody else is batting coach, how does it influence and how it is conflict? So these things need to be a bit clearer and I am firm believer that skills have to be kept separate because you cannot influence skills, it’s about one’s judgement of who’s better and who is not better.”
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