In an attempt to avoid conflict of interest, the BCCI-contracted commentators are reportedly set to be barred from writing columns for news outlets.
Earlier, cricketer-turned-commentator Sunil Gavaskar was asked to close his player management agency and Cricbuzz has now reported that if the BCCI adopts the Lodha Committee’s recommendations on conflict of interest issues, the Gavaskar and his fellow commentators would not be allowed to write sponsored columns and participate in sponsored awards/rating programs, if they want to ply their trade in the commentary box.
The report claimed that the Supreme Court-appointed Committee of Administrators (CoA) decided that,
“the contracts between the BCCI and its commentators should be examined to see if they permitted BCCI commentators to; 1) write sponsored columns for newspapers, and or 2) participate in sponsored awards/rating programmes.”
Gavaskar, meanwhile, is not the only commentator who is writing sponsored columns for a different news outlet. The likes of Sanjay Manjrekar and Harsha Bhogle also write sponsored columns for newspapers. It should be noted that Gavaskar is also a cricket expert on a leading news channel and is involved with a private firm which rates and awards cricketers.
“As per the Lodha Committee guidelines on conflict of interest, those employed with the BCCI can’t have another source of income. We’ve become very strict with conflict of interest issues — recently, a physiotherapist with the Indian women’s team had to quit her job because her brother is an official with a state association. The CoA will have a look at their contracts, but the final call on this issue will be taken by a Supreme Court-appointed ombudsman, as and when he’s appointed by the apex court,” a top BCCI official was quoted as saying by The Times of India.
Meanwhile, the likes of Aakash Chopra, VVS Laxman and Virender Sehwag can continue their association with news outlet since they commentate in Hindi and the Hindi commentators are contracted with Star Sports and not the BCCI.
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