The Indian Cricket Board ethics officer Vineet Saran on Friday asked the Mumbai Franchise owner Nita Ambani to file a written response by September 2 to conflict of interest allegations against her.
Former Supreme Court judge Saran, who replaced D K Jain as Indian Cricket Board ethics and ombudsman, sent a notice to Ambani after receiving a complaint from former MPCA member Sanjeev Gupta.
Gupta alleged that the Mumbai Franchise owner has a conflict of interest as she is also a director at Reliance Industries, which also recently bought the digital rights of the Indian T20 League for Rs 23,758 crore through subsidiary Viacom 18.
“It is submitted that the RIL website states that Viacom 18 is a subsidiary company of RIL,” Gupta wrote in his complaint.
Saran wrote in his order: “You are hereby informed that a complaint has been received by the Ethics Officer of the Indian Cricket Board in India under rule 39(b) of the rules and regulations of Indian Cricket Board, regarding certain acts, allegedly constituting “conflict of interest” on your part.
“You are directed to file your written response to the accompanying complaint on or before 2-9-2022.”
The Ambani family has been the owner of the Mumbai Franchise ever since the inaugural season of the Indian T20 League. The team has been the most successful franchise in the competition as they have the most number of title wins (5) in the history of the tournament.
The recent media rights auction of the league made it the second most valuable sporting league in the world after the United States National Football League (NFL). The media rights of cricket’s most expensive league were sold for a whopping Rs 48,390 for the 2023-27 cycle. The digital rights of the T20 league were bagged by Viacom18 for Rs 23,758 crore. It was the first time that digital rights fetched more money than television rights.
Viacom 18 further won the bid for international rights of the competition by winning Group A, C and D for a total amount of Rs 594 crore for 410 matches.
