Senior BCCI officials not happy with CoA helping Rahul Dravid in conflict of interest case

There are signs of discords in the Indian cricket board again. The Board of Control for Cricket in India’s (BCCI) Ethics Officer DK Jain asked National Cricket Academy (NCA) chief Rahul Dravid recently to depose before him next month over the Conflict of Interest allegations brought against him. The Committee of Administrators (CoA), however, has decided that the former cricketer’s case will be handled by the board’s own lawyers.

This has surprised a number of senior officials of the board and they questioned the ‘pick and choose’ treatment meted out to former players. One of the officials even went to the extent of saying that if the CoA has decided to rope in BCCI lawyers to handle Dravid’s case, then the same approach should have been taken while dealing with similar cases featuring Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly and VVS Laxman. The trio also had to depose before Jain in relation to conflict cases.

All players should be treated equally

“Don’t seem to understand much of the whims and fancies of the CoA, to be honest. All former players should stand equal in front of the BCCI. If the CoA has now decided that the board’s lawyers will look into Dravid’s matter, why wasn’t the same approach taken during the matters of Sachin, Sourav and Laxman?

“Is it because they were in honorary role and weren’t direct employees of the BCCI as Cricket Advisory Committee (CAC) members? This is clearly unfair,” a senior BCCI official was quoted as saying by Hindustan Times. The official’s stand was seconded by one of his colleagues who even cited the resignation of MV Sridhar from the position of general manager, cricket operations, because of conflict and was not provided with a board’s lawyer either.

In a lighter tone, the official said a DRS (Decision Review System) is needed even for this. He then added that the treatment meted out to Sridhar who gave his all to Indian cricket was not in the right spirit and his passing away a few days later because of cardiac arrest still haunted many. Speaking on the matter, a member of the CoA said on Monday that Dravid’s matter would be taken care of by the board.

“We will fight the case on Dravid’s behalf as he is an employee of the BCCI. Let us see how we go about it as we have already made it clear that Dravid doesn’t have a conflict as far as the committee is concerned and that is why he was appointed at the NCA in the first place,” the member was quoted as saying.

Rahul Dravid was earlier notified to respond after a complaint was lodged by Madhya Pradesh Cricket Association life member Sanjay Gupta. According to the complaint, Dravid had only taken leave of absence from his employers India Cements.

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