Published: Feb 19, 2016, 11:26 AM (IST)
Edited: Feb 19, 2016, 11:40 AM (IST)
Former India captain and the president of the Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB), Sourav Ganguly has been given a clean chit over allegations of conflict of interest. The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) ombudsman AP Shah has said that the rules prescribed by the board cannot be applied in the case against Ganguly. The BCCI ombudsman said the process to select two new teams for the Indian Premier League (IPL) editions in 2016 and 2017 has been transparent, and no member of the BCCI as well as Ganguly could have played any role in it. Rising Pune Supergiants (RPS) and Gujarat Lions are the two teams replacing Chennai Super Kings (CSK) and Rajasthan Royals (RR) for the next two editions of IPL. ALSO READ: BCCI joint secretary Amitabh Choudhary has conflict of interest, says Aditya Verma
The BCCI ombudsman said in yhis reply to an email sent by freelance journalist Niraj Gunde, who has been sending many cases of the BCCI officials and associates alleging conflict of interest. In his email, Gunde had alleged that Ganguly was conflicted as he was a member of the governing council of the IPL and is also has commercial interests with the firm that owns Pune franchise.
Replying to the complaint, the BCCI ombudsman said he had checked for Ganguly’s case even with the points that were beyond the rules framed by the BCCI, and failed to establish any conflict of interest. Shah wrote in his email, “It is clear that the bidding process involved first, the submission of sealed technical and financial bids; second, the opening of technical bids; third, the scrutiny of the technical bids by lawyers; fourth, the opening of financial bids; and fifth, the selection of the lowest bidder among those who had qualified the technical round.”
He added, “All of these steps were taken on the same day in the presence of all the bidders. It is clear that members of the IPL Governing Council had no role to play, more so because the final selection of the bidder was based on objective criteria, i.e., the lowest bid.” ALSO READ: BCCI may go in appeal to Supreme Court
Earlier, responding to the allegation, Ganguly said he has about 5 per cent of stake in Atletico de Kolkata, a football team that plays in the Indian Super League (ISL). The owners of Atletico de Kolkata have stake in the new IPL team RPS and Ganguly said he has no connection with the cricket team and is not aware of the share-holding patterns of the team.
The ombudsman added, “Mr Ganguly, as admitted by him, and verified by the BCCI, arrived at the meeting venue after the technical bids were already opened, and subsequently, as per previously advertised procedure, 3 financial bids were opened, and the lowest bidder was declared successful.”
