On December 14, Edtech startup Classplus announced Cricket Control Board in India (BCCI) Chairman Sourav Ganguly as a brand ambassador. Classplus are direct competitors of Team India jersey sponsors Byju’s. This is President Ganguly’s second partnership with a company whose rivals are BCCI sponsors – it backs fantasy gamers My11Circle, whose rival Dream11 paid Rs 222 crore to be the title sponsor of IPL 2020.
The Classplus ad passed without a sneeze. (Byju’s and Classplus did not respond to questions sent to them via email and text messages.)
The words “conflict of interest” (CoI) baffle Indian cricket as if cricketers and officials were asked to understand unified field theory.
Ganguly is currently busy trying, along with BCCI Secretary Jay Shah, to maintain their positions. The board will hold its Annual General Meeting (AGM) on Christmas Eve. In the new year, the Supreme Court will hear a petition filed by BCCI treasurer Arun Dhumal to change sections in the new BCCI constitution on, among other things, extending the terms of Ganguly and Shah.
BCCI leaders are counting on the Supreme Court to overturn and discard their own recommendations, instructions, and orders, and restore the original (some might say, moldy) administration of the board. The key change the petition seeks is to remove a rule that sends officials who have completed six consecutive years at BCCI or state associations to a three-year reflection period.
Under the new constitution, Shah’s term ended around September 2019 and Ganguly completed his six-year tenures (as deputy secretary of the Bengal Cricket Association, president and later president of the BCCI) on July 26 of this year. They should have been cooling by now. Ganguly, when contacted, said he will only comment after the AGM on December 24.
Ganguly’s determined control of power is not surprising. As a gamer, he was always a political animal, handling criticism with timely leaks and humorous tolerance. Urban and charming, his polite and old-fashioned manner, much like his cover-up campaign, found the gaps between critics, colleagues and officials.
However, what has been difficult to digest are the cricket stuff.
Deal maker
The BCCI President holds the highest office in Indian cricket and represents a wider community; Millions, if you include the youngest fan to the oldest, along with everyone involved in the game. An office of great prominence, but one that Ganguly has treated as its personal brand engine.
A report by TAM Sports, an independent advertising and media research company, has Ganguly in its top five in terms of endorsement values of sports celebrities, the other four active cricketers.
When asked for comment, official BCCI sponsors whose rivals have the backing of their president say they have no objection. A Dream11 spokesperson said the company had no problem with Ganguly’s deal with My11Circle: “If everyone meets the established guidelines, joining any partnership is a choice of the individual and the company in question.”
When contacted by Bhavin Pandya, co-founder and CEO of Games24X7, the company behind My11Circle, he said: “There is no relationship between the two. [being the BCCI president and the face of our brand]. Sourav Ganguly has endorsed our brand since April 2019 and then became the president of BCCI in October 2019. We are puzzled by this line of thinking because we have no affiliation with BCCI, therefore neither the brand nor Mr. Ganguly he has received no direct or indirect benefit due to holding both positions simultaneously. Please also note that it would have been a conflict of interest if Mr. Ganguly was the brand ambassador who became the title sponsor of the BCCI main tournament. ”
Here’s what these endorsements look like from another context: FIFA Director Gianni Infantino backs Mastercard when Visa is a global partner of the FIFA World Cup. Perhaps the question we must ask ourselves is whether the announcements at the national level reach the former captain of India Ganguly or the president of BCCI. “The fact that he is in the news because of his position at BCCI certainly has to do with the fact that he has returned to the public consciousness,” said brand consultant Santosh Desai. “It’s in the public eye, therefore a little more visible and therefore usable [to advertisers]… otherwise, there is no reason why he would not have appeared in ads all this time. ”
Sports managers are not usually famous sports stars. The closest example to Ganguly is World Athletics President Sebastian Coe. Coe resigned from his $ 100,000 ambassador position with Nike months after taking office in 2015.
Amrut Joshi, founder of the Bangalore-based sports law practice GameChanger Law Advisors, says it is “quite strange from a legal, ethical and financial point of view” for the director of a sports body to endorse an organization that competes with your main sponsor. If the terms of the position do not cover this clause, Joshi says: “A well-governed sports body would have a code of ethics that would allow the resolution of a conflict of interest complaint.” Does not matter.
There’s another slippery slope: Ganguly is the brand ambassador for JSW Cement and sits on the advisory board for JSW’s Inspire Institute of Sport. JSW owns the IPL Delhi Capitals franchise. Ganguly’s response to Indian Express, when asked about this in July, was that the cement company did not sponsor Delhi Capitals, so their role was not in conflict. That both companies were owned by the same people who owned Delhi Capitals did not count.
JSW did not respond to questions that were sent to them. From another context, this is like NBA commissioner Adam Silver serving on the LA Lakers homeowners’ real estate advisory board. Just because he’s Sourav Ganguly, Lord’s stripper and lovable rogue, doesn’t mean he’s okay.
Conflict? What is that?
Even if the new BCCI constitution did not have specific regulations addressing conflict, Ganguly’s focus on his position at BCCI is problematic.
The conflict of interest is the original sin of BCCI, which began amending its constitution in September 2008, allowing N Srinivasan to own an IPL franchise. The matter came to the Supreme Court by BCCI after the Bombay High Court declared the board’s investigation into a 2013 IPL corruption scandal illegal.
In June 2019, the BCCI ethics officer stated that Ganguly and VVS Laxman were in conflict, who said, according to the rules, it could be in the comments or in the administration, not both. As of now, the case for the CoI investigation into Virat Kohli’s parallel management positions in companies, one of which concerns player management, is ongoing.
Among cricket folks, including past and present players, there is deep disappointment for Ganguly. The domestic contracts he promised have not materialized. After Covid, the lack of cricket puts the livelihood of 6,500 players (men, women, junior boys and girls) and approximately 500 match officials (referees, match referees, scorers, video analysts, curators, field staff) in financial difficulties.
Being BCCI president is not just about the important things: organizing IPL, commenting on the player selections and physical condition of Rohit Sharma (as if he were a television expert and not a neutral leader of the Indian game) and making the Clerk’s office ask state associations which national events they prefer via email referendum.
The position of president of the BCCI has been held by politicians, businessmen, lawyers, operators, peddlers. Never a captain of India loved by millions. It is the new BCCI constitution that sent Ganguly to the top of Indian cricket, where his image and actions could have real influence. But his actions indicate that he has chosen to hold onto power and build his own brand. That is called playing the wrong line.
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