Sourav Ganguly faces new questions of conflict of interest as the co-owner of a football team (ATK-MB) and Sanjiv Goenka, whose RPSG Ventures Ltd made a successful bid of Rs 7,090 crore for the Lucknow IPL franchise at the high-stakes auction in Dubai on Monday.
According to Indian Super League (ISL) football club ATK Mohun Bagan’s official website, Sourav Ganguly is a member of its Board of Directors with Sanjiv Goenka as chairman. Sourav Ganguly has initiated the process of standing down from his role at Atletico de Kolkata Mohun Bagan, one of the two most venerable and popular clubs in Indian football, which is part of the Indian Super League.
Sourav Ganguly Decides To Step Down As ATK Mohun Bagan Director
To avoid potential conflict-of-interest controversy, BCCI president Sourav Ganguly has decided to step down as director of ATK Mohun Bagan, the football team owned by RPSG Ventures Ltd. This Indian business conglomerate on Monday bid a record INR 7,090 crore (USD 940 million approximately) to buy the Lucknow IPL franchise.
“The team was owned by Kolkata Games and Sports Pvt. Ltd. consisting of former Indian cricket captain Sourav Ganguly, alongside businessmen Harshavardhan Neotia, Sanjiv Goenka, and Utsav Parekh,” the website states.
A senior BCCI member confirmed that it was “a clear case of conflict “. “Ganguly is the president, he needs to understand. This is not the first time that he has been in this situation,” the member said.
Sanjiv Goenka and Sourav Ganguly didn’t respond to calls and text messages with queries on the conflict-of-interest issue. In addition to being one of the directors on the Mohun Bagan board, Sourav Ganguly is also a shareholder. Questions are raised over his involvement in the franchise auction process as BCCI president despite his football association with one of the bidders.
In an interview Tuesday, responding to a question on whether his association with Ganguly could raise potential conflict of interest, Sanjiv Goenka said: “Well, I think he (Ganguly) is going to step down from Mohun Bagan completely.” Asked when that would happen, he said: “I think today.” Goenka then said: “That is for Sourav to make the announcement. Sorry, I pre-empted it.”
Sourav Ganguly has been BCCI president since 2019 and has a say in all important decisions taken by the board. In the redrafted BCCI constitution following directions from the Supreme Court, the Justice RM Lodha committee listed several potential associations that came under the conflict of interest purview.
“When the BCCI, a member, the IPL or a franchisee enter into a contractual agreement with entities in which the individual concerned or his/her relative, partner or close associate has an interest. This is to include cases where family members, partners or close associates are in positions that may, or maybe seen to compromise an individual’s participation, performance and discharge of roles,” it states.
This is not the first time Sourav Ganguly has faced questions over conflict of interest.
Sourav Ganguly Had Earlier Faced Questions Over Conflict Of Interest In 2019 Too
Last year, he had put out an Instagram post wearing a JSW Cement (Jindal Steel Works) T-shirt and claiming to be “at work” as the company’s brand ambassador. JSW Sports, a wing of the business conglomerate JSW Group, is the joint owner of IPL’s Delhi Capitals.
Sourav Ganguly insisted that his new role as the brand ambassador of JSW Cement did not overlap with his duties as BCCI president. In 2019, Sourav Ganguly was found to be in positions of conflict for holding more than one post in Indian cricket. He at the time was president of the Cricket Association of Bengal, an advisor with the Delhi Capitals in the IPL, and was also working as a TV commentator.
Later, a formal complaint was filed by Sanjeev Gupta, a former Madhya Pradesh Cricket Association (MPCA) member, but the matter is yet to be heard. The BCCI, incidentally, hasn’t appointed a new Ombudsman and Ethics Officer after Justice D K Jain’s term ended in June 2021.