Ganguly set to complete his World Cup broadcast commitments amid ‘Conflict of Interest’ row

Former India captain Sourav Ganguly is all set to complete his broadcasting commitments for the World Cup even as Justice DK Jain’s latest observation on ‘Conflict of Interest’ has raised quite a few eyebrows. Justice Jain has observed that players/ex-players doing commentary as well as holding management positions in IPL teams will come under the ambit of ‘Conflict of Interest’ as per Lodha Panel’s ‘One Person One Post’ rule.

He has ruled that Ganguly and VVS Laxman holding twin jobs of being Cricket Advisory Committee (CAC) members and mentors with IPL franchises amounts to conflict of interest and the two former players will have to make a choice.

It is, however, learnt that Ganguly, one of the most respected voices in international cricket, will be completing his World Cup assignment as it is an exclusive contract with the ICC and not Star Sports.

“Sourav is doing commentary for the world feed. He has no contractual obligations with the Star Sports. And this is his only one-off broadcasting assignment for the time being for the ICC. He will certainly complete his World Cup assignment. He is not doing the Afghanistan match as he is back in Kolkata for some personal work,” a BCCI source  privy to the development told PTI on conditions of anonymity.

“But Sourav is going to be back in UK on June 25 and do the remaining India games starting the match on 27^th against West Indies in Manchester,” the source said.

According to those, who hold a contrary view as to how “commentator can be a BCCI post” since this is one tournament and with no long-term contract with any of the channels, Ganguly can’t be termed ‘conflicted’.

Regarding those who are contracted with Star Sports for the tournament, this may be a one-off event that they are doing and most of them have contracts on a series to series basis.

“Most of the current or former players, who are being perceived to be conflicted need not worry as things will change after the World Cup. It will depend on what kind of assignments they take,” the BCCI source said.