Delhi Capitals registered a miraculous super over victory in their first match of IPL 2020 over Kings XI Punjab. Marcus Stoinis and Kagiso Rabada proved to be their heroes, as the game ended in an exciting tie.
Stoinis made a valiant fifty and then picked two wickets in the final over to send the game into super over. Rabada held his nerves to dismiss Rahul and Pooran setting DC a target of 3 runs to win.
However, Delhi Capitals captain Shreyas Iyer's pre-match comments, right after the toss, have caught the attention of some people and it may land BCCI President Sourav Ganguly in trouble if reports from Times of India is to be believed.
Iyer, ecstatic after pocketing two points said that he was "really lucky" to have Ricky Ponting and Sourav Ganguly around to mentor him.
TOI quoted Iyer in verbatim, he said: "As a captain, you need a very good temperament and I think I've gained that over the years. Obviously, when you have the likes of Ricky Ponting and Sourav Ganguly around you, they make your job easy." But he went ahead and added,” And I'm really lucky to be having them (Ponting and Ganguly) around me right now".
This has led to franchise owners questioning Ganguly’s involvement with Delhi Capitals, despite him leaving his mentor position with DC after becoming the BCCI President.
"It would've been understandable had Iyer credited Ganguly in general, considering he was there as a mentor with Delhi Capitals until last year. But Iyer specifically mentioned Ganguly as part of the unit that's been helping him this year too," franchise owners and other board members were quoted by Times of India.
Eyebrows were last raised when JSW Cement, a subsidiary of the JSW Group, roped in Ganguly as the brand ambassador of the company in June this year. This, along with Iyer’s slip of the tongue, may land Ganguly in a ‘conflict of interest’ storm.
"Iyer is a cricketer. He'll talk cricket. He did nothing wrong in expressing how the team has been preparing well for the season. It is the franchise and the BCCI's responsibility to look into these areas that don't really show BCCI and IPL in good light", those tracking developments said.
IPL fraternity has been abuzz with "gossip", linking Ganguly's close ties with JSW and Delhi Capitals. JSW Group, for the record, is a 50% owner in the franchise with the other 50% owned by the GMR Group, who had first bought the Delhi franchise in 2008.
Ganguly’s association with fantasy sports platform MyCircle11 and e-learning start-up Unacademy, have also constantly raised concerns. Unacademy, a direct rival of Team India's jersey sponsor Byju's, became a sponsor of IPL for three years recently, while MyCircle11, in whose ads Ganguly appears, is a direct rival of IPL 2020 sponsor Dream11.
"That way, even JSW Cement is a rival of one of Indian cricket's sponsors Ambuja Cement," adds industry executives.
(Times of India inputs)
