Is Sourav Ganguly caught in the conflict net?

With Sanjiv Goenka's consortium bagging the Pune franchise in the IPL auction on Tuesday, questions were raised whether Sourav Ganguly, the former India captain, has got into a conflict of interest situation. Ganguly, a stakeholder in the Indian Super League franchise Atletico de Kolkata, is a business partner in the football franchise with Goenka and two other Kolkata-based businessmen Harshavardhan Neotia and Utsav Parekh who form part of the consortium. On the other hand, Ganguly is also a member of the IPL governing council.

The question of how can the business partner of an IPL team owner be a member of the governing council that runs the tournament itself was one that drew the attention of many who attended Tuesday's (December 8) auction for two new franchises.

"As far as I understand, Sourav Ganguly has no conflict of interest. If he would have been involved with any team (IPL), then it would have been a different case. But I think a lot of people are not understanding what conflict of interest means," BCCI president Shashank Manohar said.

After Manohar has come to head BCCI, the board has taken some tough decisions on the conflict of interest issue. For example, national selector Roger Binny had to vacate his chair because his son Stuart was in regular contention for Team India while daughter-in-law Mayanti was employed with BCCI's official broadcaster Star Sports.

In response to questions over Ganguly's role, Manohar said: "Suppose I am a lawyer and I have a client. If that client later at some point gets associated with BCCI, how is it a conflict of interest? It can only be a conflict of interest if someone in his position shows bias. I think this is now being taken to an absurd level."

Manohar, nevertheless, clarified that this was only his view and if at all there was a complaint over Ganguly's role in more than one capacity, it could always be referred to Justice AP Shah, who was sometime back appointed BCCI ombudsman.