I always spoke what my mind tells, irrespective of whether it toes the board's line or not, says former Indian cricket captain Sunil Gavaskar.
The board, led by Shashank Manohar, has cracked the whip on conflict of interest in the Annual General Meeting, unveiling a slew of reforms, including the appointment of a retired judge as its ombudsman.
When Sunil Gavaskar was questioned about the conflict issue, he said, “Transparency is always welcome. Nothing in the BCCI contract that stops me from saying this or that. I always ask where is the 'Conflict of Interest'? I guess it's a myth made by parties. Whoever is doing conjectures should understand that there is no conflict of interest as far as my role in the commentary box is concerned.”
Gavaskar further said, “I have always spoken what I have to, irrespective of whether it toes the BCCI line or not. I always criticized Duncan Fletcher, even he was appointed by BCCI right. So there is nothing in our contract that tells us to say this or not say that.”
Gavaskar, was once been the interim BCCI chief in 2014 during IPL 7, after N Srinivasan was removed from the office. Referring that, Gavaskar said, “My term was less than 6-8 weeks and it was strictly for IPL. I still believe it was a great honor given to me by the Supreme Court. Thankfully, that season went off without a hitch. I held two or three meetings with the captain's of the sides and then again met them on a couple of points.”
“I would also think the team I got was well versed with the organizing of the tournament and credit should be given to them," Gavaskar added.
Along with IPL, Gavaskar even held a position in the ICC. Referring about that, he said, “DRS came when I was in the ICC committee. I was of the firm opinion that decisions should not be between players. Between umpires is fine, but leaving the players to interfere in what is an umpires domain is not good. Now what the nine countries thought was different from what India thought. Can they be wrong. They have their own views.”
When asked about the issue of removing Srinivasan from ICC chairman post and replaced with Manohar, Gavaskar said, “He had experience as far as the administration was concerned. Very very difficult to answer that question. Unless you sit in the boardroom, it is difficult to say how good or bad a person was.”
By Phani Ch
