Virat Kohli could potentially face conflict of interest charges as he is an investor in a company – online gaming platform MPL – which is the official kit sponsor for the Indian cricket team, according to a report in The Indian Express.
The Board of control for Cricket in India, on November 17, 2020, had announced MPL Sports as the replacement of Nike. As per the contract, India’s senior men, senior women and Under-19 teams will sport MPL jerseys for the next three years.
Now, according to documents that the Indian Express is in possession of, it turns out that captain Kohli, in February 2019, was allotted Compulsory Convertible Debentures for Rs 33.32 lakh in Galactus Funware Technology Private Limited, which owns Mobile Premier League. And in January 2020, Kohli was named brand ambassador of MPL.
The report stated that the day Kohli was allotted the CCDs, Galactus also issued 34 CCDs to Cornerstone Sport LLP, whose CEO Amit Arun Sajdeh is Kohli’s partner in two other firms.
Additionally, Sajdeh is the director of Cornerstone Sport and Entertainment Private Ltd, a company that managed the commercial rights of Kohli, KL Rahul, Rishabh Pant, Umesh Yadav, Ravindra Jadeja, Kuldeep Yadav and Shubman Gill.
As per the BCCI constitution, commercial conflict is defined as: “When an individual enters into endorsement contracts or other professional engagements with third parties, the discharge of which would compromise the individual’s primacy obligation to the game or allow for perception that the purity of the game stands compromised.”
Read the entire report by The Indian Express here.