CHENNAI: Conceding that the committee of administrators is facing practical problems in implementing conflict of interest rule in its day-to-day functioning, CoA member Diana Edulji on Monday said a “white paper” will be prepared detailing the issues.
Edulji and fellow member Lt Gen (Retd) Ravi Thodge met former and present cricketers to discuss the problems caused due to the contentious clause. Former India skippers Dilip Vengsakar and Sourav Ganguly (via Skype) attended the informal meet, but VVS Laxman, Rahul Dravid and Sachin Tendulkar skipped it.
Tendulkar, Dravid, Ganguly and Laxman faced conflict issues, with ethics officer retired Justice DK Jain issuing notices to them. Most of the players who attended the meeting sought clarification on the issue and suggested a few changes to make the rule flexible.
“All the issues were discussed: the problems being faced by cricketers and by us to implement it. It was a vibrant discussion,” Edulji told reporters after the meeting, which was also attended by Sanjay Manjrekar, Irfan Pathan, Parthiv Patel, Ajit Agarkar, and Rohan Gavaskar.
Thodge echoed Edulji’s sentiments. “There are some genuine difficulties which our cricketers face. We may not agree on certain things but on certain things we have to. So, those are the issues we wanted to gather from them, and that was the purpose of this meeting. Cricketers are the ones who are conflicted, so we are addressing their issues.”
A major issue faced by the cricketers is pertaining to dual roles: player-commentator, commentator-IPL-franchise staff, commentator-administrator-franchise mentor and BCCI post-IPL franchise employee. The new BCCI constitution makes it clear that it will be “one-person-one-post” and violation of that is deemed “conflict of interest”.
A “white paper” is an authoritative report that informs readers concisely about a complex issue and presents the issuing body’s philosophy. However, Edulji maintained that the conflict rule needs to be followed in letter and spirit. CoA will submit its report to amicus curiae PS Narasimha, who will seek Supreme Court’s intervention.