MUMBAI: Indian cricket’s serial conflict-of-interest petitioner has taken aim yet again. This time at Nita Ambani, owner of Indian Premier League franchise Mumbai Indians.
BCCI ethics officer Vineet Saran has asked Ambani, also a Reliance Industries Ltd director, to respond to a conflict-of-interest complaint made by former Madhya Pradesh Cricket Association (MPCA) member Sanjeev Gupta.
Gupta raised the issue that Ambani, being the owner of Mumbai Indians, is also a director at RIL, whose subsidiary Viacom18 acquired digital streaming rights for the IPL from 2023 to 2027.
Viacom 18 secured the digital rights to stream the IPL in India, and also the media rights (both TV and digital) for Australia and New Zealand, the UK, and South Africa, at the e-auction* conducted by the BCCI in June.
According to Gupta, Ambani’s positions as a team owner in the IPL and as a director in the company that owns the subsidiary that has acquired IPL media rights, represents a conflict of interest.
“It is submitted that RIL website states that Viacom18 is a subsidiary company of RIL,” Gupta wrote in his conflict of interest complaint, according to PTI.
Saran, a former Supreme Court judge, has given Ambani until September 2 to file a written response to the complaint.
“You are hereby informed that a complaint has been received by the Ethics Officer of the Board of Control for Cricket in India under rule 39(b) of the rules and regulations of BCCI, regarding certain acts, allegedly constituting ‘conflict of interest’ on your part,” Saran wrote in his notice to Ambani. “You are directed to file your written response to the accompanying complaint on or before 2-9-2022.”
Gupta has a history of raising conflict-of-interest issues in Indian cricket. In the past, he has filed complaints against Virat Kohli, Sourav Ganguly, VVS Laxman, Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, MS Dhoni and BCCI vice president Rajeev Shukla, among others.
What has come of said complaints? Nothing of note about sums it up. Does that mean all his complaints were without merit. Not quite. But that’s another story altogether!
