Ethics Officer dismisses ‘Conflict of Interest’ complaint against BCCI president Roger Binny

PTI, Jan 13, 2023, 6:56 PM IST

Image credit: PTI / File

New Delhi: The BCCI Ethics Officer Justice (Retd) Vineet Saran has ”dismissed” the ‘Conflict of Interest’ case filed against BCCI president Roger Binny, stating that complainant Sanjeev Gupta’s claims were devoid of any ”merit”.

Gupta’s contention in his complaint was that 1983 World Cup hero’s daughter-in-law Mayanti Langer Binny working for Star Sports as an anchor amounts to having a contract with the BCCI and thus is a Conflict of Interest.

Star Sports is the official broadcaster of Indian Premier League as well as Indian national team’s home games along with all ICC events.

Gupta, a former Apex Council member of Madhya Pradesh Cricket Association (MPCA), has been filing complaints against who’s who of Indian cricket including Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, Sourav Ganguly, VVS Laxman, Virat Kohli to name a few.

Justice Saran in his 11-page 20-point report has summarily rejected Gupta’s complaint and also issued him a stern warning to not share complaint related documents with ”unrelated parties”.

Gupta has had a habit of mailing all his documents to hundreds of journalists, present and ex BCCI officials.

In the verdict uploaded on bcci.tv, Saran stated: ”It is not the case of the complainant (Gupta) that Ms Langer is involved in sales, marketing, business or management of Star Sports.

”She is hosting live broadcasts and panels for Star Sports. The fact that media rights for BCCI and IPL were awarded to Star Sports on 5.4.2018 and 27.06.2022 is also not disputed.

”Hence it cannot be said, as the President, the respondent (Binny) has influenced the engagement of his daughter in law in Star Sports. Ms Langer is not an employee of Star Sports and is only working on contract with Star Sports as an anchor.

”In the absence of any instance of Conflict of Interest having been cited in her working in such capacity with Star Sports, it cannot be presumed that there will be any Conflict of Interest.” In fact, Saran also categorically mentioned that a ”mere relationship” (father-in-law and daughter-in law) between respondent (Binny) and Langer would not be sufficient enough to establish an instance of Conflict of Interest.

Justice Saran also issued a ”stern warning” to Gupta so that he doesn’t ”voluntarily place complaints and other documents in public domain and he should send the copies of same only to parties concerned”.