Sourav Ganguly says no need of full-time CAC; BCCI will approach SC to seek clarity on conflict of interest clause

Mumbai: BCCI president Sourav Ganguly on Sunday said a full-time Cricket Advisory Committee (CAC) was not required since it has a limited role to perform, restricted to only one or two meetings. [caption id=“attachment_7498311” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] File image of BCCI president Sourav Ganguly. Getty Images[/caption] The BCCI on Sunday deferred the appointment of the CAC with Ganguly saying the controversial conflict of interest clause, which even the CoA found difficult to implement, is coming in the way. Ganguly himself, Sachin Tendulkar and VVS Laxman had to resign from CAC on allegations of conflict of interest. “CAC doesn’t have much work. We keep talking about CAC, but the job of CAC is appointment of selectors and coach. So, once you appoint a selection committee, it stays for four years and once you appoint a coach, he stays for three years. So, where is the need of having a full-time CAC?,” Ganguly said while addressing media after BCCI’s AGM. “So far it (CAC) is honorary, so even if you pay, you pay on what basis. There is no regular work. To have CAC with conflict of interest, I don’t know whether it is the best thing. It is about only one meeting,” Ganguly added. The BCCI chief said they will approach the Supreme Court to get a clarification on the conflict of interest clause. “Conflict clause stops everyone, that’s why we can’t make the CAC. That’s why we can’t bring proper selectors. Conflict should only be for someone like us (office bearers). Conflict stops us from getting good people. We are going back to the court to get clarification about conflict clause,” Ganguly said. “We don’t want to appoint a CAC and then it gets cancelled, like it has happened with us in the past two times and Kapil Dev and his team. So those clarifications are required.” Ganguly said he hopes to make day-night Test a regular feature in future home series. “We have already started. The credit should also be given to Arun (Dhumal) and Jay (Shah) and the apex council members,” he said. “Within three days we had a meeting and told them this (day-night Test) has to happen. We saw the success and that too India wasn’t playing the strongest team like Australia and England.” The Eden Gardens had hosted India’s maiden day-night Test against Bangladesh last month but Ganguly said other centres will also get to conduct pink ball Tests in the future. “Yes and different associations will get to host. We will deal as per requests from associations,” he said. The new BCCI chief said he also plans to re-work the Board’s pension scheme for cricketers. “We will re-look at the entire pension scheme because a lot of them have jobs and still get a pension. So we will have to make it more available to people who are in much more need.” Ganguly also plans to share BCCI’s ever-increasing revenue with all stakeholders, including the newly-formed nine state bodies. “As you know, the revenue of BCCI is increasing and will increase. The money has gone up so what we are doing is incentivising states to build better infrastructure. Gujarat has built such a huge stadium, Himachal has such fantastic facilities, Chennai’s new stands are back on track,” he stated. “We are building the new NCA. The nine new states need infrastructure, they have to buy grounds, they have to build infrastructure. So we will not just give money in one go, we will departmentalise it and BCCI will monitor the progress. We will form a committee headed by three of us (Ganguly, Dhumal, Shah),” he added.