Former India captain Rahul Dravid has responded to the accusations of conflict of interest made against him by Ramachandra Guha, who resigned from the Board of Control for Cricket in India’s Committee of Administrators last week.
Dravid, who is India’s Under-19 cricket team’s coach, has clarified that he was breaking no rule about conflict of interest by being a mentor to the Indian Premier League franchise Delhi Daredevils as he was not under a national contract during the two months of the domestic tournament.
“By the BCCI’s conflict of interest rules, I was absolutely not under a conflict of interest,” Dravid was quoted as saying by ESPNcricinfo. “If the rules have changed midway through the contract, then I think it is unfair to criticise me for breaking the rules or twisting the rules to suit my convenience.”
Guha had called out the superstar culture prevalent in Indian cricket in his letter to COA chief Vinod Rai, after he resigned from the Supreme Court-appointed COA. Guha highlighted various instances of conflict of interest at the highest level and named several cricketers who fall in this grey area, including Dravid, MS Dhoni, Sourav Ganguly and Sunil Gavaskar.
Dravid, though not directly named, was called out for holding two posts. “No person under contract with an India team, or with the National Cricket Academy, should be allowed to moonlight for an IPL team too,” Guha had written. The historian also highlighted how coaching contracts were tailor-made for a period of 10 months, leaving the two months of IPL free.
Dravid, however, said that it’s not only him, but several other people in support staff roles during the IPL who are in this position and asked the COA for clarity on the matter.
“My simple point is that, not only me but there are five or six of us who are in the same position,” he said. “There needs to be clarity. If there is clarity, we will be in a position to take an informed decision. It is disappointing the way this got played out in the public without much understanding of the background.”
Other than Dravid, India’s fielding coach R Sridhar is with Kings XI Punjab, while Andrew Leipus, the chief physio at the National Cricket Academy, works with Kolkata Knight Riders.
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