Rahul Dravid Writes To COA Clarifying His Stand On Conflict Of Interest Issue
Jun 9, 2017 at 6:35 PM
Rahul Dravid, now the former coach of India A and India Under19, has written a letter to the Vinod Rai-led COA explaining his position that he was not under a conflict of interest issue when he took up the job of coach of Delhi Daredevils during IPL,
“Yes, I have written to the CoA explaining my position and explaining the background of which this perceived conflict of interest has happened. By the BCCI’s conflict of interest rules, I was absolutely not under a conflict of interest. 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,” Dravid told ESPNcricinfo.
“My simple point is that, not only me but there are five or six of us who are in the same position. 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,” he added.
The matter was raised by the former member of COA, Ramachandra Guha, who resigned from his post on June 1. A day later, in his detailed letter to Vinod Rai, Guha jotted down seven points, describing the reason for his exit. In one of the point, he mentioned about the conflict of interest issue in BCCI. Though he didn’t mention Dravid’s name but raised questions over BCCI offering contract to coaches for ten months, which ends just a few days before IPL. Dravid is one of the coaches who is the coach of one or other BCCI team’s and an IPL team as well.
Not just this, Guha also raised questions over Sunil Gavaskar where he mentioned that Gavaskar holding a post in a company that manages cricketers and doing commentary at the same time is also a conflict of interest issue. Though Gavaskar replied to him soon.
Now Dravid has also come into action after a few days and has written to COA regarding the same matter. The Supreme Court of India formed a committee is set to table a meeting on June 12 where they are expected to come up with the proper definition of Conflict of Interest, which might also clear doubts of Rahul Dravid regarding the same.