The Board of Control for Cricket in India may already be speaking in two voices over the apparent conflict of interest in Mahendra Singh Dhoni ’s involvement, but there continues to be a deafening silence when it comes to its sidelined president, Mr N. Srinivasan.
Newly-appointed BCCI treasurer Ravi Savant became the first to break ranks and point out that the India and Chennai Super Kings skipper needed to hauled up over the matter, saying. “Dhoni should be given a notice for conflict of interest if this was not part of his contract earlier.”
“Dhoni should immediately disassociate himself from the management firm while he is captain,” Mr Savant told a TV news channel. No other BCCI official has gone this far, and though he was almost immediately contradicted by another new appointee, secretary Sanjay Patel, it is clear that not everyone is on the same page on the conflict of interest issue, even though it has precipitated the present crisis around Indian cricket.
With interim BCCI boss Jagmohan Dalmiya maintaining a diplomatic silence, particularly when it comes to Mr Srinivasan, it was left for Mr Patel to counter Mr Savant’s views.
“Whatever Mr Savant has said is his personal opinion and the board has nothing to do with it. The board has no intention to send any letter to either Dhoni or any other cricketer with the Champions Trophy going on. There was no discussion on this issue at the working committee meeting.”
However, according to former BCCI chief and Punjab Cricket Association president I.S. Bindra, the matter did come up at the latest emergent working committee meeting here, with little response.
In essence, the argument is over Dhoni’s association with Rhiti Sports Management (RSMPL), which manages his commercial interests and of India and CSK players Suresh Raina and Ravindra Jadeja. It incidentally also handles Chennai Super Kings’ marketing.
Dhoni at one point had a 15 per cent stake in RSMPL which is now apparently not the case. The conflict of interest came in because, as India captain, his word counts in team selection and in the event players represented by the company were picked, he stood to gain a share of profits from any deals involving them.
While Mr Srinivasan’s case does not parallel Dhoni’s, there is enough spillover in his dual role of BCCI president and CSK owner to raise questions. Added to that is the fact that his son-on-law, CSK team principal Gurunath Meiyappan, was arrested for betting.
The BCCI however, is yet to even acknowledge that this is a problem, with Mr Dalmiya preferring to skirt the matter on taking up the board’s reins two weeks ago, even though heads have rolled over far smaller issues in Indian cricket.