Rahul Dravid to meet BCCI's ethics officer over conflict of interest allegations

Rahul Dravid, who was recently appointed head of cricket at the National Cricket Academy (NCA) in Bengaluru by the BCCI, has been asked to appear before the board's ethics officer Justice (retired) DK Jain over allegations of conflict of interest. According to PTI, Dravid will meet Justice Jain in person in Mumbai on September 26.

Allegations of conflict of interest against Dravid were brought up by Sanjeev Gupta, a life member of the Madhya Pradesh Cricket Association, who said that the former India captain should not be on the BCCI payroll because he was a long-term employee of Chennai-based India Cements, the company owned by former board president N Srinivasan that also owns Chennai Super Kings.

In response, ESPNcricinfo understands that Dravid had written to Justice Jain explaining that he had suspended his employment with India Cements and was getting no pay. That then got him the full backing of the three-member Committee of Administrators (supervisory authority of BCCI) to remain in his NCA role.

Along with Dravid's case, Justice Jain will also hear one pertaining to Mayank Parikh, a senior official in the BCCI's operations wing, who owns six cricket clubs in Mumbai - both Gupta and the CoA had pointed out that, as per the BCCI constitution, one cannot operate cricket clubs and be employed by the state cricket association or the board.

The conflict of interest issue has been in focus of late, with a number of high-profile former cricketers being questioned. Sourav Ganguly, who is caught up in it as well, said last week that the BCCI had to make the conflict of interest rule more "practical" and allow people to perform multiple roles. VVS Laxman and Sachin Tendulkar are among the other big names in Indian cricket to have found themselves in similar situations of late.

"I wouldn't say an exception be made to the rule [for celebrated former players but] the rule has to be practical," Ganguly said at an event in Mumbai. "And what is conflict of interest? Today Rahul Dravid is appointed NCA head and there are issues about his conflict of interest of his job with India Cements. So you've got to be practical on that.

"You never know whether you will become NCA head or not, three years later you may not remain NCA head, but these [other] jobs are permanent and these jobs remain with you. So it has got to be practically solved - even when you do commentary or coaching, I don't see it as a conflict of interest."

Ganguly's roles came into question since he is both president of the Cricket Association of Bengal and part of the coaching staff of IPL team Delhi Capitals, while also doing media work as a commentator and columnist.