CoA recommends amendment to conflict of interest clause in final report to Supreme Court
The Committee of Administrators (CoA) in its final report to the Supreme Court has recommended amendment to the conflict of cause clause of the BCCI constitution. The CoA stated that the recommendation has been made after consulting a number of stakeholders, cricket administrators and legal experts.
The Committee of Administrators (CoA) in its eleventh and final report to the Supreme Court has recommended an amendment to the controversial conflict of cause clause in the BCCI constitution. The clause has ensured that former cricketers Sachin Tendulkar, Kapil Dev and Sourav Ganguly quit the BCCI’s Cricket Advisory Committee (CAC) following complaints from Sanjeev Gupta about the breach of the clause.
The clause has also endangered Rahul Dravid’s position as the director of the National Cricket Academy (NCA) following another complaint of the MPCA life member citing a breach of the clause by the legendary batsman. Even the newly appointed BCCI president Ganguly has expressed his concerns regarding the clause and its implementation, stressing that it is only preventing former cricketers from serving the game in different ways.
"The CoA, in its tenure, has come across various instances where the rules pertaining to conflict of interest have been applied to positions and scenarios which in its view didn't warrant such application. Possibly, this was a result of straight-jacketed application of rules. A few of the concerns stemming from such straight-jacketed application include absolute prohibition on former players from occupying multiple, or two unrelated/remotely related posts, undue restrictions on the current players (not on an annual contract with the BCCI) from being gainfully employed even outside the BCCI during the offseason," the COA said in its report, according to Cricbuzz.
"The proscriptions contained in rule 38 (4) of the BCCI constitution are capable of being interpreted in a very straight-jacketed manner, which is proving to be counterproductive and disproportionately restrictive to players."
The CoA believes that the BCCI Ethics officer must be given more freedom, flexibility and discretion to administer and tackle in the facts and circumstances of each case, as it varies from case to case, instead of binding him by a "straight-jacketed formula."
As the recommendation goes, "amendment to Rule 38 of the BCCI constitution vide insertion of certain clauses and sub-clauses." "The same has been outlined in the report prepared by CoA upon consultation with various stakeholders, including current and former cricketers, cricket administrators, persons specializing in the study of ethics and legal experts. The suggestions are made with the objective of clarifying a few aspects covered by the prevalent conflict of interest rules, which have proved to be problematic, whilst retaining their original character and spirit," says the CoA in its report.