The Board of Control for Cricket in India’s (BCCI) ethics officer Justice (Retd) DK Jain has adjudged Tamil Nadu Cricket Association president Rupa Gurunath to be in conflict of interest. This is the first time the ethics officer has found a state association president to be in a position of conflict. Rupa, who is the daughter of former BCCI president N Srinivasan, became the TNCA president in 2019. Following a plea by Sanjeev Gupta in November last year, Justice Jain held that Rupa was perceived to be in conflict for holding two posts – TNCA president and one of the directors of India Cements Limited (ICL), which in turn runs Chennai Super Kings Cricket Limited (CSKCL), the owner of the Indian Premier League (IPL) franchise Chennai Super Kings (CSK). CSKCL is one of the subsidiary companies of India Cements.
The BCCI’s ethics officer, however, hasn’t directed Rupa to step down from one of the posts with immediate effect, sending the matter to the cricket board instead to decide the future course action as per Rule 38(2) of the BCCI constitution. Rule 38(2) talks about disclosure when an individual holds two separate posts under the BCCI and failure to issue a complete disclosure could render the individual open to disciplinary action. According to senior advocate Raghu Raman, who represented Rupa before the ethics officer, as because it is perceived to be a case of indirect conflict of interest, the BCCI will judge if the conflict is tractable or intractable. For several years now conflict of interest has been one of the most talked about issues in Indian cricket. Until 2008, clause 6.2.4 of the BCCI constitution dealt with conflict of interest and didn’t allow players, administrators, match officials and team officials to have commercial interest in cricket activities.
