Not a week has passed since the appointment of Anil Kumble as the head coach of the national side but the number of controversies in the selection process keep racking up.
Anil Kumble, the former Indian cricketer was selected unanimously as the next coach of India by an advisory committee consisting of three of his former teammates in Sachin Tendulkar, Saurav Ganguly, and VVS Laxman after interviewing all potential candidates in Dharamsala.
However a potentially huge scandal has now surfaced that one of the members of Cricket Advisory Committee may have ‘broken the Indian Law’ in the process of selection.
VVS Laxman, who along with Sachin and Saurav opted to select Anil Kumble reportedly has a financial interest in one of Anil Kumble’s firm according to an exclusive from a sports website.
Though on the face, it might seem like a small story made too large, a closer look at the findings of a website showed that the ‘financial interests’ in question were more than substantial.
Tenvic Sports Education Private Limited a company familiar to the sporting fraternity is owned by the now Indian coach Anil Kumble. And according to reports, VVS Laxman is the second highest shareholder in the company to date. Badminton player Prakash Padukone and table tennis player Sharath Kamal are some of the other shareholders in the firm.
The Company in question was established in 2011 with an agenda of marketing and training in the sports field. Based in Bengaluru, its first general meeting was held in September 2012 just a few months after Laxman retired from international cricket.
At that time, it is understood that the former Indian batsman held 16,666 equity shares in the said company.
It is also reported that he is entitled to a substantial amount of money in the form of incentives, bonus and other benefits from Kumble’s firm.
And in just a year’s time, Laxman’s shares in the company doubled and he now holds 33,332 shares in the company. The documents showed that only a nominal fee was paid by the former cricketer for the increase in his shares.
More doubts arise when closer scrutiny revealed that Kumble paid Laxman, along with other shareholders in the firm an amount of Rs.7 crores during 2012 and 2014.
Rs.3 crore were classified as bonuses while another 3.2 as employee benefits while the rest of the amount was written off as consultation and professional charges.
It is has now raised a serious question on the motives of the former cricketer who was a part of the advisory committee in rejecting other candidates.
The Supreme Court (SC) had also ruled that the conflict of interest situation in Indian cricket was a complete “anti-thesis to the fundamental imperatives of the game” and impermissible under law.
The SC in its judgment on January 22, 2015, ruled, “Conflict of interests against those who hold positions of influence in the BCCI have left many a cricketing enthusiast and followers of the game worried and deeply suspicious about what goes on in the name of the game.”
BCCI ombudsman Justice AP Shah, whose role in the Cricket Committee is solely to take care of such matters and with the story taking light, he is also under scrutiny.
The same website also revealed that their queries into the same matter were completely ignored as Anil Kumble, VVS Laxman, Sachin Tendulkar, Saurav Ganguly and BCCI President Anurag Thakur all refused to comment on the said allegations.
However, it is unclear whether Sachin and Saurav were aware of the said ‘financial interests’ during the process of the selection.
It is hard to understand how such a simple issue was overseen by many involved in the whole process but if there is any further evidence that Laxman had a substantial raise in his income from the firm in the next year, with Kumble as the coach, it will only raise more and more doubts.
But for the sake of the cricketers we all worship, let’s hope it is nothing more than a rumor.