Indian test captain Virat Kohli falls in the conflict of interest circles

Indian test captain Virat Kohli falls in the conflict of interest circles: Although, the Indian Premiere League (IPL) concluded in the month of May but the IPL related controversies doesn’t seem to cease. Every other day, you get to hear terms like conflict of interest relating to the IPL more often than the recent developments about cricket in our country. After the name of N. Srinivasan and MS Dhoni, now the new Indian Test skipper Virat Kohli has hogged the limelight for the so-called conflict of interest issue.

Virat Kohli who has business links in Cornerstone with which five of the current Indian players are also associated namely Shikhar Dhawan, Rohit Sharma, Umesh Yadav, Ishan Sharma and Murali Vijay. While, it is reported that Cornerstone is in talks with pacer Mohammad Shami as well, to manage his commercial interests. It is also learnt that there are quite a few cricketers who wish to get associated to the same agency. Kohli is the skipper of Test team which underlines his significant role in selection of the team.

ALSO READ: BCCI prepares to keep conflict of interest at bay

The Delhi lad had earlier in the year launched a chain of fitness centres under the brand name Chisel and a clothing line Wrogn in collaboration with CSE Consulting, which is a sister concern of Cornerstone.

Yesterday, the BCCI had instructed the board members to sign no conflict of interest undertaking and today we hear that next week the players will also sign similar undertaking to protect the interest of the game.

On the conflict of interest issue which has got linked with Indian Test captain Virat Kohli, the BCCI President Jagmohan Dalmiya was quoted by Indian Express saying, “We needed to go into the details of the deal. If there’s any conflict of interest on the player’s part financial or otherwise we will look into it. But rest assured, guidelines for the players will be out soon,”

Dalmiya further said, “Two years ago, when I was the interim head of the BCCI, I had drawn up a 12-point programme to clean up cricket, which included the conflict of interest issue of players. I saw several players had off-the-field ventures. I also wanted the players’ agents to be accredited with the BCCI. Somehow, those clauses were not put into effect,”

On this matter the CEO of Cornerstone Sajdeh told the tabloid, “We have invested in Chisel we have put in time, effort and manpower and structured the deal. We are also looking at four or five other similar business models, along the lines of Chisel and Wrogn, where the athlete has ownership and does not promote it like a model but like an owner. Tomorrow after he retires he has royalty coming to him,”

He further asserted that was no conflict of interest in involvement of Virat and Cornerstone. “If Virat had ownership in the agency it would have amounted to a conflict of interest. In this case, he has no ownership in the agency. Virat is a client of Cornerstone and if CSE has any business interests with Virat or Rohit or Shikhar, I don’t see a conflict of interest. CSE is a licensing company and we are doing licensing business with him. It is a legitimate business, plus I am not getting into any cricket business with him or any BCCI-related business with Virat,” he said.

Similarly, the Indian ODI skipper MS Dhoni was also hounded in a similar kind of situation when he was accused of conflict of interest as he held 15 percent shares in the company which managed him- Rhiti Sports Management. The same company was also managing MS Dhoni’s team mates Suresh Raina, Ravindra Jadeja, Pragyan Ojha and RP Singh.

Srinivasan was also involved in conflict of interest issue up to such an extent that Supreme Court had to intervene into the matter and take things under its control. Srinivasan with the help of the board members had molded clauses in IPL so that he could own Chennai Super Kings (CSK) side in 2008. But, Supreme Court made him resign from the post of BCCI President as he was the owner of CSK at that time as well which adversely affected his credentials and fairness as an administrator.