A few months ago, legendary Indian batsman Sunil Gavaskar left no option than to shut down his player management agency as BCCI ruled that it conflicted with his role as a commentator contracted by the Board.
Well, if the BCCI follows all the Lodha panel’s proposals on conflict of interest issues, Gavaskar might face a bigger blow as he may be asked to choose between commentating for the BCCI, or writing sponsored columns and participate in sponsored awards/rating programs.
According to the minutes of a meeting of the Committee of Administrators (CoA), which happened on October 24, the SC-appointed panel has decided that “the contracts between the BCCI and its commentators should be examined to see if they permitted BCCI commentators to 1) write sponsored columns for newspapers, and or 2) participate in sponsored awards/ rating programmes.”
Apart from Gavaskar, the BCCI’s other contracted commentators are former India cricketers Sanjay Manjrekar and Murali Kartik, and cricket expert Harsha Bhogle. Like Gavaskar, Manjrekar and Bhogle too write sponsored columns for news agencies, they will also be asked to choose any one job.
As per the reports of TOI, a top BCCI official said, “As per the Lodha Committee guidelines on conflict of interest, those employed with the BCCI can’t have another source of income. We’ve become very strict with conflict of interest issues – recently, a physiotherapist with the Indian women’s team had to quit her job because her brother is an official with a state association. The CoA will have a look at their contracts, but the final call on this issue will be taken by a Supreme Court-appointed Ombudsman, as and when he’s appointed by the apex court.”
Interestingly, about the stated rules doesn’t imply on the Hindi commentators, since they are contracted with Star Sports and not the BCCI. It means that batting legends VVS Laxman and Virender Sehwag can continue to write sponsored columns and air their views on private news channels (Sehwag).
For now, though, the BCCI commentators have some good news as their “dearness allowance” has been increased from INR 3,000 to INR 4,000 a day. The Board has also decided to grant the conflict of interest disclosure forms, which had earlier been sent to its staff, to the national selectors as well.
