Ganguly wants a 'more practical' conflict of interest policy

With stringent conflict of interest rules, the Board is now finding it difficult to fill in the positions for Cricket Advisory Committee and also selection committee.

BCCI president Sourav Ganguly wants the conflict of interest clause to be applicable predominantly to administrators and not all.

Much before taking charge as the president of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), Sourav Ganguly had stated that the conflict of interest policy needs to be ‘more practical’.

Back then, Ganguly was summoned by the Board’s ethics officer, Justice (retired) DK Jain as there were allegations of conflict of interest for holding multiple positions — as the chief of Cricket Association of Bengal and the advisor of Delhi Capitals.

Eventually, Ganguly was cleared of all charges.

But in his new role, the ‘conflict of interest’ remains an area of concern. With stringent conflict of interest rules, the Board is now finding it difficult to fill in the positions for Cricket Advisory Committee and also selection committee.

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“The conflict clause stops everyone, A to Z it stops everyone. It has got former cricketers also, former administrators also. That is why we can't make the CAC, we can't make proper selectors,” Ganguly said on Sunday.

“It has to be practical. Conflict should only be for someone like us, who are administrators,” the former India captain said after the Board’s Annual General Meeting.

The BCCI top brass met the Ethics Officer recently to find out how to deal with the issue. “We are going back to the court for all these clarifications because some of these I don't know where we will finish. The conflict issue stops us from everything, to get good people and keep them for longer and to stop them from doing other things is very difficult,” Ganguly said.

However, he hopes to try his best to get the right candidates for the important profiles. “We will see what happens, we will do what we can. We will have to get people who are completely out of all this, and ask them to pick it (the selectors), otherwise how will we do it,” the president said.

New Women’s selection panel on the cards

While the CAC needs to pick the men’s senior national selection committee, there is no such provision for women’s panel. The Hemalatha Kala-led five-member women’s selection panel’s tenure is over and Ganguly insisted that the office bearers will have to initiate the process to get new panel on board.

“All the five members have finished their terms. The CAC doesn’t pick the women’s committee. I don’t know why but they only pick the men’s team and the coach,” Ganguly said.