No conflict of interest in my tweet about My11Circle, states Sourav Ganguly
Newly-elected BCCI president Sourav Ganguly says there is no conflict of interest in him endorsing My11Circle ― a fantasy gaming app ― ahead of India’s final T20I against Bangladesh on Sunday. Ahead of being elected, Ganguly had vowed to look into the conflict clause in BCCI's constitution.
The conflict issue against Ganguly was brought up in light of the fact that he promoted the game ― via his Twitter account ― while holding the designation of BCCI president. Besides this, there is also the fact that Dream11 ― the board’s official fantasy gaming partners ― are rivals of My11Circle.
“I don’t think there is any conflict in it, it’s my personal thing. Had I tweeted about Dream11, it would have come under conflict of interest. I don’t see any conflict in that tweet,” Ganguly was quoted as saying by the Indian Express.
Interestingly, Ganguly was caught up in a case of conflict of interest when he held three positions at once earlier this year ― president of the Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB), commentator on TV, and mentor of IPL franchise Delhi Capitals. BCCI’s Ethics Officer DK Jain asked the former India skipper to choose one post and Ganguly eventually chose to remain president of the CAB.
However, given that even the CoA had stated that it the conflict clause “proving counter-effective and disproportionately restrictive to players," it will be looked at sooner rather than later.