Kolkata: The owner of the newly bought Pune IPL franchise Sanjeev Goenka on Wednesday ruled any case of ‘Conflict of Interest’ as far as former India captain Sourav Ganguly is concerned regarding being a co-owner of the ISL franchise Atletico de Kolkata.
“Sourav is not been involved, that’s for sure. This is entirely mine. It’s 100 percent owned by me. It’s me and my group of companies,” Goenka clarified as there were questions of a potential Conflict of Interest raised as Ganguly is also an IPL governing council member.
The highest stakeholder in ATK further said he tried to broach the topic to Ganguly on the sidelines of an ISL match but the former India captain looked away and chose not to respond.
“You all are being hypothetical that I’m going to rope in Sourav. We have not even thought about it. There has been no dialogue or discussion with Sourav whatsoever. I was generally speaking to him about cricket and he looked away. That was in the last football match. I was generally asking him, what do you think,” Goenka said.
A passionate cricket follower, Goenka revealed that he was always keen to buy Kolkata franchise but he was outbid by Bollywood heartthrob Shah Rukh Khan, the principal owner of Kolkata Knight Riders.
Introducing his son, Saswat, as a partner in the new team, he said: “Our team Saswat and myself took that call and decided that we’ll go for the bid. We look forward to your support. We’ve the team for two seasons and we’re going to make the best out of it.”
Tightlipped about his team and the way forward, Goenka said: “Our team will take a call. It’s not for me to decide. You don’t take players because you like to be photographed with someone. I’m not willing to share the budget, my team is working on it.”
Asked whether he would like to bring in MS Dhoni as Pune franchise being the lowest bidder will have the first go at the draft, Goenka chose to be diplomatic. “MS Dhoni one of the finest and greatest leaders India has seen. We have not yet decided but very soon we’ll decide. We have the first option of choosing the first player in the draft.”
Co-owner of ATK for two seasons, Goenka further said his experience with the business of sport was outstanding. “Football and cricket are two different sports. Cricket is far more established, while football is evolving in India.”
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