Mumbai: Reacting to Sourav Ganguly’s denial of his alleged conflict of interest and the BCCI’s vague response in the matter, freelance journalist Niraj Gunde, who raised the issue, has said that the board is trying to “shield” the former India captain, according to a report on espncricinfo.com
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In an email to BCCI ombudsman AP Shah, Gunde said:
It appears to me that BCCI is trying to shield Mr Sourav Ganguly by mentioning that decisions are
taken by majority of members in the IPL Governing Council and all decisions are approved at the Working Committee.
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“Does BCCI concede that even having persons with conflict of interest… in a committee, if decisions taken by it are by (means of) a majority, (can be problematic)?” Gunde wrote.
According to Gunde,
It cannot be said Mr Sourav Ganguly was just a witness to the bids when he himself was present in the room when the bids were opened. Mr Sourav Ganguly was a member of the council which approved these bids meaning that all the members should have been aware of the contents of the bids.”
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Gunde asked Shah to scrutinise the bid documents submitted by New Rising Promoters Ltd, which won the ownership of Pune IPL franchise for two years. He wants the ombudsman to ascertain specifically whether Sanjeeve Goenka, owner of Rising Pune Super Giants franchise, had disclosed the commercial partnership with Ganguly.
He wrote: Mr Sourav Ganguly sat in the meeting of IPL Governing Council which awarded the rights to New Rising Promoters Ltd while having prior business interest with the same promoters, (it) is a clear incident of conflict of interest case.”
Though Ganguly admitted that he has a small stake in ISL team Athletico de Kolkata, he declared that he has no interest or stake with New Rising Promoters Pvt. Ltd.
I am neither a shareholder nor a director of New Rising Promoters Pvt. Ltd or the companies or entities which are its shareholders. I have no personal knowledge of the shareholding pattern of New Rising Promoters,” Ganguly said.
