Speaking in different voices

Newly appointed BCCI treasurer and secretary contradict each other on Dhoni conflict

Just a day after Ravi Savant and Sanjay Patel took charge as the BCCI8217;s treasurer and secretary,the two office-bearers came up with contrasting views on Indian captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni8217;s conflict of interest issue.

Savant on Tuesday evening said that Dhoni should be sent a notice for conflict of interest and that he should dissociate himself from the management firm Rhiti Sports.

Dhoni should immediately disassociate himself from the management firm while he is captain. Dhoni should be given a notice for conflict of interest if this was not part of his contract earlier, Savant said to NDTV.

A few hours later,Patel said that the BCCI wouldn8217;t issue any notice to Dhoni on the issue and that they didn8217;t want to disturb their team playing the Champions Trophy in England.

BCCI won8217;t be issuing any notice to Dhoni,and as secretary of the BCCI I can confirm to you that nothing was even discussed in the working committee meeting held in Delhi. Ravi Savant8217;s views are his personal ones and BCCI has nothing to do with it, Patel said.

The issue came into the limelight following news reports suggesting that Dhoni had a stake in Rhiti,a sports management company that handles other India players such as Suresh Raina,Ravindra Jadeja and Pragyan Ojha.

Patel said that until the matter was raised by the BCCI members in a working committee meeting,no inquiry could be held. The working committee of BCCI takes final call on whether these issues are worth discussing or not. Till date nothing has come on table. First we need to study the subject and try to find out the crux of the issue. There is no point in jumping the gun, he said.

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Savant,meanwhile,said that there was no harm in issuing a notice to Dhoni after the conclusion of the Champions Trophy.

Like me many have been reading and hearing about this for the past one week. The Indian team is playing Champions Trophy at the moment and we don8217;t want to disturb anyone. But if there is conflict of interest Dhoni should dissociate himself from the firm. There is no harm in asking him about it, Savant said. The MCA president also suggested the introduction of a new clause in player8217;s contracts to help avoid such issues in the future.

Proposals not certainty

The BCCI came up with a series of proposals during their working committee meeting in Delhi on Monday and one was of following the ICC8217;s T20 norms in the IPL. This would mean getting rid of strategic time-outs,which generates the board sizable advertising revenue.

Savant explain that these were merely proposal and consent would be taken from all associations before any measures are passed. At the moment,the BCCI8217;s priority is to clean up the game and we all are working towards that. BCCI might see some change in revenue with some of their decisions but at the moment the priority is restoring the faith of the public, Savant said.