The BCCI will hold its Annual General Body (AGB) meeting on Dec 23 and there are a number of important points of discussion. Two points that will take up a lot of time include the future of the Indian Premier League (IPL) and the on-going controversy regarding BCCI President Sourav Ganguly’s conflict of interest deals.
Before we take a look at the controversies surrounding Ganguly, let’s take a quick look at the potential IPL discussion.
IPL Can Have 10 Teams Only In 2022
The IPL is the biggest cash cow for the BCCI and the board wanted to grow the IPL by increasing the number of franchises from 8 to 10. The plan was to start the 2021 IPL with 10 franchises but it looks like this may not be possible for one big reason.
The IPL is scheduled to have its mega-auction for Jan 2021. This gives the BCCI and the IPL governing body hardly any time to go through a vetting and selection process to shortlist the two teams.
Given the fact that the BCCI wants to schedule the next season of the IPL in April 2021, the two new teams will not be able to play any role in the IPL mega-auction in Ahmedabad and will have very little time to build a competitive IPL team. This is why some members of the BCCI are going to push for the 10 team IPL tournament to start only in 2022.
Whether BCCI President Sourav Ganguly will listen to logic remains to be seen.
Ganguly And His Conflict Of Interest
Ganguly became the President of the BCCI in October 2019 and was given a term of just 9 months. He is still in office as the BCCI has looked to challenge the 9 month tenure which is now pending a decision in the Supreme Court.
During the last year and a bit, Ganguly has taken a lot of flak for signing a number of deals that appear to have a direct conflict of interest with his role as BCCI President. However, Ganguly does not see it that way and continues to shrug of these conflict of interest accusations.
BCCI board members are expected to address these conflict of interest issues during the AGM. Some of the points that will be discussed are:
How Many Sponsorships?
Did Ganguly use his position as BCCI President to get more sponsorships and endorsements? The former Indian captain is still a big star in Indian cricket based on his accomplishments as an ex-player but it appears that his new role as BCCI President has also opened doors for Dada. One way to find this out is to look at some data and examine how many sponsorships Ganguly had prior to being elected vs. how many sponsorships he has now after being elected BCCI President which is an honorary role.
How Many Brands Are BCCI Rivals?
The second question that must be addressed is how many brands endorsed by Ganguly are direct rivals of the BCCI? For example, the main sponsor of the 2020 IPL was daily fantasy sports (DFS) company Dream11 who stepped in after VIVO dropped its sponsorship rights.
Sourav Ganguly is a sponsor of MyCircle11 which is also a DFS company and a rival of Dream11. The official sponsor of team India’s jersey is a learning company known as Byjus. Sourav Ganguly has signed up with a rival of Byjus.
Direct Conflict Of Interests
Questions will also be raised about direct conflict of interest charges. Ganguly endorses the Adani Group who will also be one of the bidders vying for one of the new IPL franchises. JSW Cements which owns 50 percent of the Delhi Capitals franchise is also one of the companies that Ganguly endorses.
It is clear that there is a blatant conflict of interest going on but whether the BCCI members are powerful enough to buck Sourav Ganguly and the force that is behind him Amit Shah – Union Home Minister remains to be seen!
