BCCI Ethics Officer pulls up CAC for conflict, proves Diana's fear right

Kapil Dev, Anshuman Gaekwad (IANS)

New Delhi, Sep 29: The Cricket Advisory Committee (CAC) of the BCCI comprising Kapil Dev, Anshuman Gaekwad and Shantha Rangaswamy has been served a notice by Ethics Officer D.K. Jain after Madhya Pradesh Cricket Association (MPCA) life member Sanjiv Gupta levelled allegations of conflict of interest against the trio.

They have been asked to respond by October 10.

The CAC had re-appointed Ravi Shastri as the head coach of the Indian men's team till the T20 World Cup in India in 2021. But the move hasn't come as a surprise for some functionaries and executives in the board who feel that this was waiting to happen.

A board executive said that the whole process of selection of the head coach could come under the scanner if Jain finds that the three members are in violation of the conflict of interest clause of the BCCI constitution.

"The constitution calls for 'one person, one post' and if that is the case, all three CAC members might be in conflict. Kapil is a director of the Indian Cricketers Association (ICA) which is funded by the BCCI. This apart, he is also said to be the owner of Dev Musco, a sports lighting company that supplies floodlights to some leading international cricket grounds in India.

"Anshuman has been on various BCCI committees over the years and is now a member of the Affiliation Committee of the BCCI. He was also a member of the steering committee of the players association. Coming to Shantha, she is again the director of the Indian Cricketers Association," the executive explained to IANS.

Interestingly, the legal team of the BCCI under the Committee of Administrators (CoA) had given the trio the green light, even though it was again a case of two members of the CoA voting in favour of the move, while Diana Edulji had opposed it saying that Jain should have been allowed to take the call.

"Diana had clearly said that it was for the Ethics Officer to decide if the CAC is clear or not, and she had made her opinion known. It was a 2:1 verdict if you remember. Her fear has been proved right," the functionary said.