Genuine Victims of BCCI’s double standards: Rahul & Pandya fined Rs 20 Lakhs

Failure to comply would lead to deduction in salaries

Indian public has a tendency to overreact on issues it does not understand. Pandya and Rahul have had to pay price for that blast. Both players, part of India's squad for the 2019 WC were asked to contribute Rs 20 Lakhs each to charity and assistance to cricket association for blind by the BCCI ombudsman on Saturday.

Both the players will have to pay a sum of Rs 1 lakh each to widows of 10 constables in paramilitary forces who have lost their lives on duty. The cricketers have also been asked to deposit Rs 10 lakh in the fund created by the Cricket Association for the blind.

The national players were guilty of controversial comments and sexual jibes at women during Coffee with Karan show aired in the first week of January. It is interesting that the BCCI allows repeated offenders of conflict of interest to be part of their setups, Sourav Ganguly is one to mention but acts tough on comparatively colder issues.

Justice D. K. Jain, who also holds the charge Ethics Officer of BCCI, has noted that the players had already missed out on earning of about Rs 30 lakh as the two players had been sent back from the Australian tour.

BCCI Ombudsman directs KL Rahul & Hardik Pandya to pay Rs1,00,000 each to families of 10 constables in para-military forces who have lost their lives on duty & Rs 10,00,000 in the fund created by Cricket Association for the blind,for promotion of game for the blind,within 4 weeks https://t.co/Ju7Zgvwsit

— ANI (@ANI) April 20, 2019

In case the players fail to deposit the required sum within a stipulated period of 4 weeks, salaries would be deducted. The perennial habit of BCCI has changed little after the COA took over affairs. Despite the players offering sincere apologies most stalwarts from the cricket fraternity called for immediate penalties and COA member Diana Edulji was extremely particular about a proper hearing.

COA chairman Vinod Rai was under substantial pressure after the comments were shown on TV and suspended the 2 players immediately. In the absence of a designated ethics officer, it was later decided to allow the players to continue playing. It is interesting that code of conduct proceedings in BCCI remains largely lopsided and governance related issues are hardly raised while the small fish bear the brunt of public outrage and image makeovers.

(Views expressed are author's own and not attributable to Devdiscourse)