Rahul Dravid, who was recently appointed head of cricket at the National Cricket Academy (NCA) in Bengaluru by the BCCI, has been asked to appear before the board's ethics officer Justice (retired) DK Jain over allegations of conflict of interest. According to PTI, Dravid will be meeting Justice Jain in person in Mumbai on September 26.
Dravid's possible conflict of interest had been put in the spotlight by Sanjeev Gupta, a life member of the Madhya Pradesh Cricket Association. Gupta said taking charge of the NCA will put Dravid in a conflict of interest situation since he is also employed by India Cements, which is owned by the former BCCI president N Srinivasan. Justice Jain will now adjudicate on the matter, even though the CoA is of the view that Dravid is not in conflict since he has frozen his employment with India Cements.
Also read: Conflict-of-interest rule has to be 'practical', says Sourav Ganguly
The conflict of interest issue has been in focus of late, with a number of high-profile former cricketers being called into question. Sourav Ganguly, Dravid's former India team-mate, who was found to be in conflict of interest recently, said last week that the BCCI had to make the conflict rule more "practical" and allow people to perform multiple roles. VVS Laxman and Sachin Tendulkar are among the other big names in Indian cricket to find themselves in similar situations of late.
"I wouldn't say an exception be made to the rule [for celebrated former players but] the rule has to be practical," Ganguly said at an event in Mumbai. "And what is conflict of interest? Today Rahul Dravid is appointed NCA head and there are issues about his conflict of interest of his job with India Cements. So you've got to be practical on that. You never know whether you will become NCA head or not, three years later you may not remain NCA head, but these [other] jobs are permanent and these jobs remain with you. So it has got to be practically solved - even when you do commentary or coaching, I don't see it as a conflict of interest."
Ganguly's roles came into question as he is president of the Cricket Association of Bengal, as well as on the coaching staff of the IPL team Delhi Capitals, and has also been doing media work as a commentator and columnist.