Has India U-19 coach Rahul Dravid not realised his conflict of interest with Delhi Daredevils?

Is it fair for a coach of a national side to also be in charge of a local team within the country? Wouldn’t spending a good amount of time mentoring a certain set of players from one team, create a subconscious bias in someone who is in a position to influence selection decisions at a national level? In other words, wouldn’t coaching both an Indian national team and an IPL franchise be considered conflict of interest?

What if the player is someone as universally popular and respected as Rahul Dravid?

It’s hard to imagine Dravid, a cricketer who has a reputation of being Mr Clean, involved in any conflict of interest in Indian cricket. However, his position as the Coach/Mentor of IPL team Delhi Daredevils puts him in direct conflict with his role as the coach of the Indian national junior teams.

Dravid first took up the mantle as the junior teams’ coach in June 2015. He was announced as the Delhi Daredevils mentor in March 2016, after the IPL Auction and before the ninth edition began, a few weeks after he had lead the Under-19 team to the final of the World Cup. He was part of the revamped support staff of the Delhi-based IPL team, along with Paddy Upton, who he had earlier worked with at Rajasthan Royals. The team seemed to have a good impact initially, but they narrowly missed out on reaching the play-offs.

As coach of the India Under-19 and India A teams, Dravid’s role involves finding, picking, and guiding youngsters from all over the country who have the potential to represent India at the international level. But as the mentor of an IPL team, for a better part of two months, Dravid will be closely working with and grooming the players from just one team.

This is a tricky territory for any Indian cricketer, with the recent crackdown on the Board of Control for Cricket in India by the Supreme Court. To put it in another way, can the coach of a county team in England also coach the national team at the same time? Or can Anil Kumble, the national coach, still be working with an IPL team?

It’s easy to dismiss the issue when a player like Dravid is at centre of it – a genuinely liked player who built his repute internationally by being a honest-to-goodness cricketer and human. He’s the man who refused an honorary doctorate because he wanted to earn it. He can’t possibly be involved in something that is against the rules. But in this case, the rules are blurred lines. Conflict of interest in cricket is often a grey area, but it is being addressed a lot more in recent times.

At a time when BCCI is being made to clear house, guided by the Supreme Court-appointed Committee of Administrators, Dravid’s new position is far from ideal.

In fact, the new BCCI Constitution, uploaded on their website, is as clear as it gets on the Conflict the Interest issue:

“When the individual holds two separate or distinct posts or positions under the BCCI, a Member, the IPL or the Franchisee, the functions of which would require the one to be beholden to the other, or in opposition thereof.

Illustration 1: A is the Coach of a team. He is also Coach of an IPL Franchisee. A is hit by Conflict of Interest.”

It’s given in black and white – The A in this case is Dravid who is hit by conflict of interest as he is the coach of both the IPL and the another team. So, has he not realised the conflict here? Is he going to let one of the teams go? Or is the new Constitution not being enforced as yet?

A recent report by the Indian Express suggested that Dravid will have to choose between the two teams he is in charge of, as the BCCI has come up with a new annual contract. Earlier, his contract was for 10 months, which allowed him and all parties to skirt the issue as the IPL is on for just two months. However, now, the CoA is looking at a 12-month contract, which would put his role with Delhi Daredevils under the scanner. The report added that Dravid is supposedly fine with the 12-month contract, with some renegotiations.

While there is no time frame for these renegotiations, Dravid is currently gearing up for the new season with Delhi. This would mean that while he hasn’t made the choice, as suggested by the report, he will most likely continue to be with the IPL franchise for the next two months at least.

BCCI’s crackdown on Conflict of Interest

Dravid is not the only one to be associated with both the national side and an IPL team. India’s fielding coach, R Sridhar, is part of Kings XI Punjab’s support staff as well, where batting coach Sanjay Bangar was till he stepped down last year.

Sourav Ganguly also comes under the scanner due to his post in the IPL Governing Council as well as his relationship with the owners of the Rising Pune Supergiants, with whom he co-owns the Indian Super League team, Atletico de Kolkata.

In the past, the old administration of BCCI has often cracked down on potential conflict of interest. Back in 2015, the BCCI released a list of rules regarding the Conflict of Interest, leading to several changes.

Ganguly, who took up administration with Cricket Association of Bengal, did not continue as commentator. Roger Binny, who was a selector, had to step down as his son Stuart, was in national contention. Current national coach Anil Kumble was embroiled in several such cases as well – he was out of the BCCI’s technical committee after he joined Mumbai Indians, then there were questions over his involvement in Tenvic, a sports consulting company. When he was announced as India’s coach, he spoke about the matter at length saying that he had discussed and cleared it with the BCCI.

But when it comes to IPL, Conflict of Interest is an especially precarious ground to be on. The league has had more than its fair share of controversies, and many of them have involved similar conflict. Remember the business with N Srinivasan influencing Andrew Flintoff’s arrival to Chennai Super Kings in the IPL Auction? Multiple reports suggested that Srinivasan, the managing director of India Cements, which owned the Chennai franchise and was the BCCI secretary at the time (he went on to become president of the BCCI as well as ICC), had asked the then IPL chief Lalit Modi to dissuade Rajasthan Royals from getting hold of the former England all-rounder. Srinivasan’s position in both the BCCI and an IPL team put him a position to bend rules to suit his interests, something that led to his eventual ouster.

While there is no suggesting that Dravid, as coach, is in the same situation as Srinivasan, who was as an office bearer and team owner, it is true that the former India captain similarly holds two positions, which could, hypothetically, lead to preferentialism.

Not an ideal position for Dravid the mentor

That Dravid is an excellent mentor is under no doubt. He has, in the past, guided young players like Sanju Samson, Karun Nair, Ishan Kishan, Rishabh Pant, among others, both with Rajasthan Royals and India juniors, as well as Delhi Daredevils in the last season. There has been marked development in the Under-19 and A teams as well, with the colts reaching the World Cup final in 2016.

However, as the coach of teams representing India, there can’t be even a sliver of space for favour or favouritism. But Dravid’s role as a mentor in IPL puts him in a position where some amount of predisposition towards certain players can set it. It is but natural to be inclined towards players whose potential and growth you have seen first-hand over a period of time. This bias may not overtly exist in his mind or even his selection, but it can’t be completely discounted either. To put it straight, even the possibility of a conflict on a subconscious level is problematic in the current structure of Indian cricket. And that’s not a position you want a cricketer as respected as Dravid being in.

How the contract negotiations with BCCI will go, whether the constitution will be enforced or whether Dravid will step away from Delhi Daredevils after this season, remains to be seen. However, it cannot be denied that national coach – albeit at a junior level – also being in charge of an IPL team is just not done, especially since the man involved is Dravid. He has already seen the ugly side of IPL when the spot-fixing scandal hit his former team Rajasthan Royals. He saw his team through that scandal by upholding his sense of fairplay and sportsmanship. This situation, unfortunately puts Dravid’s credibility under an unnecessary cloud again.