Former India legends' cricket involvement under conflict of interest scanner

Former player like Sachin Tendulkar and Anil Kumble are now under the glare of BCCI’s crackdown on ‘conflict of interest’

The clean-up act of Indian cricket which the BCCI is attempting to do has already had some serious repercussions, and the dual roles of former India legends like Anil Kumble, Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid and Sourav Ganguly are the latest issue that has come under the spotlight, according to Indian Express.

On Sunday, the BCCI put a player agent accreditation system in place. There is no doubt that recent moves indicate a sincere intention to weed out corruption from cricket, but the big question which has come up is this – should cricketers, past and present, be treated on a par with administrators like N Srinivasan?

That India Test captain Virat Kohli’s management agency is also contracted to several other India players remains a problem with the BCCI.

A conflict of interest (COI) is a situation in which a person or organization is involved in multiple interests (financial, emotional, or otherwise), one of which could possibly corrupt the motivation of the individual or organization.

A list of former players whose roles of being involved in cricket could be seen to clash with their other engagements:

Anil Kumble: Chairman, BCCI’s technical committee, also Mentor, Mumbai Indians, and co-founder of Tenvic, a company in the business of sports training and consulting.

Brijesh Patel: Chairman, BCCI’s new area development committee, and secretary, Karnataka State Cricket Association. He is Head (Cricket Operations) for Royal Challengers Bangalore.

Ravi Shastri: Director, Indian cricket team, and contracted to the BCCI as commentator. Last commentary assignment was the ongoing Ashes. He is Member, IPL governing council.

Sunil Gavaskar: Contracted to the BCCI as commentator. He runs Professional Management Group, a sports marketing agency that has signed on a number of cricketers, including Mumbai batsman Sarfaraz Khan.

Sachin Tendulkar: Member, BCCI’s cricket advisory committee, also Mentor, Mumbai Indians.

Rahul Dravid: Coach, India U-19 and India ‘A’, also Mentor, Rajasthan Royals.

V V S Laxman: Member, BCCI’s cricket advisory committee, also Mentor, Sunrisers Hyderabad.

Sourav Ganguly: Member, BCCI’s cricket advisory committee, and a broadcaster. Last commentary assignment was the 2015 ICC World Cup.

Sanjay Bangar: Coach, Indian cricket team, he also coaches Kings XI Punjab.

While other cricketers did not respond on the issue, Brijesh Patel said,”You’re talking about my involvement with Royal Challengers Bangalore. But what about Sachin Tendulkar and Anil Kumble, who are part of the Mumbai Indians set-up? What about Dravid, who looks after Rajasthan Royals? Laxman is with Sunrisers Hyderabad.

“There’s no point targeting cricketer because the BCCI appointed them despite their IPL contracts.”