Pune franchise representative Subroto Talukdar denied suggestions about of Sourav Ganguly’s possible conflict of interest in the Sanjeev Goenka-owned New Rising Pune on Tuesday following the IPL players’ draft in Mumbai.
After industrialist Goenka’s company New Rising bought the Pune team, questions on a potential conflict of interest were raised as Ganguly is an IPL governing council member as well as co-owner of Indian Super League football team Atletico de Kolkata.
Earlier, Goenka had told PTI, “Ganguly is not involved, that’s for sure. This is entirely mine. It’s 100 per cent owned by me. It’s me and my group of companies.”
Talukdar echoed Goenka’s view about the former India captain’s ‘no role’ with the new IPL unit. “Ganguly was not a part of the think tank,” said Talukdar.
He did not stretch the Ganguly matter, preferring to discuss the group’s strategy ahead of the draft and how some other cricketers were consulted. “We had a clear cut strategy and Mahendra Singh Dhoni was an automatic choice. He is the best person to build a brand,” he said.
“We employ a group of cricketers including Manoj Tiwary, Ashoke Dinda and Wriddhiman Saha and we consulted them,” added Talukdar.
He was quick to add that the trio play for different IPL sides and hence, there was no conflict of interest.
