CoA and Sourav Ganguly in agreement with discussion on Conflict of Interest, says Ravi Thodge
Ravi Thodge, who was the last of the members to join the CoA, has said that CoA and Sourav Ganguly are in agreement with discussion on Conflict of Interest issue that has been a major bone of contention in the last few months. Thodge is of the opinion that the rule needs to be reassessed.
After Sanjeev Gupta went on a spree to bring many conflicts of interest issues to the fore, BCCI had suffered its worst in the last few years, with former cricketers aspiring to be a part of any BCCI committees became far and few in between. Even the current BCCI president Sourav Ganguly was a regular visitor to the office of the ethics officer, majorly down to the conflict of interest role.
Understanding that it is a conflicted role, Thodge said it will be one of the areas of concern for BCCI going forward will be the conflict of interest rule and added that the rule needs to be reassessed as that could create practical difficulties.
"We (CoA and Ganguly) are in agreement with it and the last time when we had a meeting here, Sourav attended on video conference from Calcutta and we had lots of discussions on that issue. He's aware, and it's one thing that needs to be addressed otherwise we'll have a problem in having anybody as a coach or for any BCCI appointment it will be an issue," Thodge was quoted as saying by Cricbuzz.
"So to facilitate cricketers being involved in the cricket administration, it is essential that conflict of interest has to be relooked into, it's not that it should totally go. Where the personal and financial benefits are there, those will be taken care of. But if the interest of cricket suffers because of conflict of interest then it needs to be addressed. I think he (Ganguly) has mentioned that same point because we had almost a three-hour discussion at that time and he's got his views on that."
Formerly a retired Lieutenant General in the Indian Army, Thodge was the last to join CoA in February this year. The major reason for him to be in place was to break the deadlock the CoA after the two remaining members - Diana Edulji and Vinod Rai - struggled to find consensus on several matters. After a short tenure, the army man believes that most things were completed.
"We've almost implemented things the way we wanted to. There are certain things to be done, our status report has been submitted to the court and we'll see whatever comes."