Venkatesh Prasad caught in a conflict of interest case

Former Indian fast bowler Venkatesh Prasad has been embroiled in a ‘conflict of interest’ controversy after an anonymous complainant alleged him of running a cricket academy despite currently being the junior chief selector.

Prasad co-founded and co-owned ‘SLS Academy for Cricket Excellence’ along with his former state teammate Sujith Somasunder. After the complaint, Justice AP Shah of the BCCI ombudsman has ruled that Prasad can hold only one position. Now reportedly, Prasad has given up his stake in the academy.

The order of Justice AP Shah stated, ”A notice was issued to Prasad on May 14. In his reply, Prasad admitted that SLS Academy is owned and managed by a company, ‘Starting Line Sports and Education Private Ltd,’ co-founded and co-promoted by him along with Somasunder in 2014. Prasad said he still owns 50% of the shareholding of the company. He then clarified that he was nominated as a BCCI selector only subsequently, in November 2015, after which he had not participated in any coaching assignment at the academy.”

The decision was taken according to the law of BCCI, which states, ”Rule 2(C) of the BCCI `Rules of Conflict’ of Interest make it very clear that retired cricketers who are appointed as coaches of Indian teams or national selectors shall not be associated with any private coaching academies during their tenure. This implies that retired cricketers are not permitted to be involved in running or owning or being associated with a cricket academy if they are national selectors.”

Justice Shah has previously handled many more alleged ‘conflict of interest’ cases. A similar decision was taken against Raghuram Bhat, the former Karnataka spinner, who was a selector as well as spin bowling coach of Karnataka State Cricket Association.

According to sources, Shah has decided on around 55 ‘conflict of interest’ complaints in Indian cricket, ever since he was appointed in November last year. Currently, he has around seven-eight cases pending with him, which include those of former India cricketers Brijesh Patel and Arshad Ayub. Both Patel and Ayub are the secretary and president of the Karnataka and Hyderabad cricket associations respectively.

“Perhaps, it is time that the ex-cricketers start running kabaddi academies. What will a cricketer do after retirement, if not give back to the game by coaching kids,” lamented a former cricketer. “Can you find a better man to coach spinners than Bhat,” another wondered.