Shantha Rangaswamy Resigns From Cricket Advisory Committee

Former India captain Shantha Rangaswamy has resigned from her position as a member of the Cricket Advisory Committee (CAC) and director of the Indian Cricketers Association (ICA) earlier on Sunday. She stepped down after being alleged of working at more than one post at the same time. “I have other plans so have decided to move on. The CAC was anyway meeting once in a year or one in two years so I did not understand the conflict,” said Rangaswamy, according to PTI.

Key Takeaways:

• ​On Sunday,  Former India captain Shantha Rangaswamy immediately quit the CAC after receiving notice.
• According to the BCCI constitution, one person cannot hold more than one post at the same time. So, Rangaswamy was alleged of donning multiple roles with the CAC and ICA.
• The earlier CAC, comprising Tendulkar, Ganguly and Laxman too had to quit due to the similar complaints against them.
• Interestingly, all the complaints are being filed by one man, Sanjeev Gupta, a member of the Madhya Pradesh Cricket Association.

“It was an honour to be on the CAC committee. It will be tough to find suitable former cricketers for any administrative role in the current scenario (conflict of interest). The ICA I would have resigned anyway before the elections were held. So it was a matter of time,” Rangaswamy, who shared the committee of the CAC along with Kapil Dev and Anshuman Gaekwad, added. The committee chose Ravi Shastri as the India chief coach in July.

She has sent her resignation to Committee of Administrators (CoA) and the board's CEO Rahul Johri via an email on Sunday. According to the BCCI constitution, one person cannot hold more than one post at the same time. So, Rangaswamy was alleged of donning multiple roles with the CAC and ICA. Interestingly, all the complaints came from one man, Sanjeev Gupta, a member of the Madhya Pradesh Cricket Association.

​Shantha, 65, was the first woman to lead the Indian cricket team. She was also the first woman to win a Test series and to score a six and receive the BCCI lifetime achievement award.

​Citing her reason for quitting the committee that Rangaswamy told TOI, “It was a bit disturbing to receive this notice. I didn't want to embarrass people who appointed me. It was an honour for me to be recognised. I was the first woman cricketer to be a part of the CAC. CAC meets once in two-three years. If that's looked at as a conflict of interest, I don't know where things are headed.”

​“I can understand people complaining, but if the ethics officer sends this notice, it's an endorsement of the complaint that we're wrong. Therefore, keeping ethics in mind, I felt that I should quit,” Rangaswamy lamented.

She has quit her ICA post too. “I, Kapil and Ajit Agarkar became promotee directors/signatories of ICA for the purpose of registering the constitution of the association till such time that the BCCI elections are held. It was an honorary service, not paid. If this is construed as conflict of interest, I can assure you that everything and everyone is conflicted,” she claimed. “For example, if you commentate, you will be targeted and told to quit the Board/state association, even if commentating is your bread and butter.”

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“You eat with your left hand, instead of right, and it will become a conflict. It's all becoming weird and absurd. Conflict of interest needs to be redefined, if the BCCI wants quality cricketers, I mean people with integrity, those who've a clean record, to be a part of it. Otherwise, you'll not get good people in the Board,” she felt. “I hope that the newly-elected body of the BCCI addresses this issue and there's clarity on it,” she added.

Feature Image Credit: The Hindu

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