Rahul Dravid sends a letter to CoA to explain the present conflicts

The functioning of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) is under constant scrutiny ever since the Supreme Court has been involved in the cleaning up of the board. The supervisory functionary, Committee of Administrators (CoA) appointed by the SC will be discussing the issues of conflict of interest in Indian cricket and particularly the role of legendary cricketer Rahul Dravid.

Dravid has been given an exception to coach India’s junior team (India U19, India A) while being the mentor of IPL franchise Delhi Daredevils. This issue came into the limelight after the resignation of Ramachandra Guha, who was the member of Committee of Administrators (CoA). Moreover, it has been believed that he gave up his position due to the inaction from other members of CoA in the case of conflict of interest in Indian cricket.

However, he didn’t mention Dravid directly and said, it was “contrary to the spirit of the Lodha Committee” for coaches or support staff of India’s senior and junior teams, or staff at the NCA, to have IPL contracts.

In BCCI’s present arrangements, all India’s senior and junior team’s coaches and support staff are given a contract of ten months which end in March every year. Moreover, this arrangement allows them to sign a two month contract with IPL franchises.

Except for Rahul Dravid, many other coaches and support staff members have been a part of IPL franchises. Such as India’s fielding coach R Sridhar and physio Patrick Farhart who have roles in the Kings XI Punjab team while Andrew Leipus, the chief physio of the National Cricket Academy, works with Kolkata Knight Riders.

Dravid’s reaction

Dravid finally reacted by saying that he has sent a letter to CoA to explain his position. Also, he said, he has abided by the rules and regulations framed under the conflict of interest clause and feels that there was a need for greater clarity of rules.

“Yes, I have written to the CoA explaining my position and explaining the background against which this perceived conflict of interest has happened. By the BCCI’s conflict of interest rules, I was absolutely not under a conflict of interest. If the rules have changed midway through the contract, then I think it is unfair to criticise me for breaking the rules or twisting the rules to suit my convenience,” the former Indian skipper said.

“My simple point is that, not only me but there are five or six of us who are in the same position. There needs to be clarity. If there is clarity, we will be in a position to take an informed decision. It is disappointing the way this got played out in the public without much understanding of the background,” he added.

Meeting scheduled on June 12

A meeting is scheduled on June 12 where they (officials) will discuss the fresh contract for Dravid and also address the present conflict of interest situation.

“It’s not that this has suddenly cropped up today. Nobody is against resolving any of these issues.” BCCI was quoted as saying by ESPNCricinfo.

“You have to do it in a holistic manner and that’s a work in progress. And certain things have a certain process. You will have to figure out what the right framework is. It is not a situation-specific thing. You need to develop a framework that addresses conflict based on principles,” he further added.

New regulation for Conflict of Interest

Everything will have to be kept in mind before making the required changes in the present conflict of interest said the BCCI official.

“That [increasing remunerations] is the point we are considering, in terms of increasing the contracts for Test players to the extent that it has to be something that is reasonable even if somebody does not get an IPL contract,” he said. “We have to think through what the framework is for coaches and support staff.”