BCCI President Sourav Ganguly recently found himself in an unwanted controversy over his Instagram post. In the post, he shared a photo of himself wearing a t-shirt with the JSW Cement logo on it. This raised many eyebrows and voices about conflict of interest started rising.
JSW Sports, the sports vertical of the JSW Group, is, along with the GMR Group, the joint owner of the IPL team Delhi Capitals. JSW Cement’s MD Parth Jindal oversees the management of the Delhi IPL franchise and as per the official website, is the Chairman of JSW GMR Cricket Pvt Ltd.
At work .. JSW cement ..Start Strong Grow Stronger ...#jsw cement
A post shared by SOURAV GANGULY (@souravganguly) on
Sourav Ganguly was a mentor of Delhi Capitals until he became the BCCI President and left the position with the IPL franchise.
Ganguly, further clarified that said his role as the brand ambassador of JSW Cement didn’t overlap with his role as BCCI president.
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“How do I influence? I am not a brand ambassador of JSW Sports (which handles Delhi Capitals in IPL). I don’t think the cement company is a sponsor of the (Delhi Capitals) team. I don’t see any conflict in it. I am not associated with their cricket; had I been, it would have been a conflict,” Ganguly was quoted as saying by The Sunday Express.
The BCCI constitution makes the following hypothesis in cases of conflict of interest: “When the BCCI, a Member, the IPL or a Franchisee enter into contractual arrangements with entities in which the individual concerned or his/her relative, partner, or close associates has an interest. This is to include cases where family members, partners, or close associates are in positions that may, or maybe seen to compromise an individual’s participation, performance, and discharge of roles.”
The BCCI President does endorse online cricket fantasy league My11Circle. He has also in the past expressed his reservations on the conflict-of-interest clause in the BCCI constitution. He had said that the Board will not get the services of the best cricketers in the system because of the conflict-of-interest clause.
