Kolkata: Andrew Leipus, the chief physiotherapist at the National Cricket Academy (NCA) in Bengaluru quit his job blaming the BCCI’s, ‘lack of clarity’.
Leipus who also works with IPL franchise Kolkata Knight Riders had repeatedly asked the BCCI for a clarity on his roles for the both these enterprises and and asked for a clarification from the Indian board as to whether this resulted in a, ‘conflict of interest’.
Having got no response from the board despite having written to them several times, Leipus thus made this move and stepped down as the chief physiotherapist.
The Australian has been one of the main reasons for the improved fitness levels of the players after his stint with the Indian team from 1999-2004.
He took up the NCA job in 2015, when he was already a part of the Kolkata Knight Riders set up. But he was in doubt as to whether he could carry on with both these roles as there is, ‘conflict of interest’ buzz which was generated by former CoA member Ramachandra Guha’s explosive resignation letter.
Leipus, according to reports from the Indian Express, did not want a situation where he is left with no job and so he had written to the BCCI almost a month back seeking help on this issue but when no response came, he decided to step down from his post at the NCA.
Indian legend Rahul Dravid too had faced similar issue some time back as he was the coach of India A and the national U-19 side and the mentor of the Delhi Daredevils in the IPL. After he wrote to the BCCI seeking clarification as to which should be his role, the Indian board handed him a two-year contract for coaching both the Indian teams and automatically Dravid had to step down from his role with the Daredevils.
This time, while extending his contract the BCCI made sure that they followed the Lodha Committee reforms and thus he was given a 12-month contract instead of the earlier one of 10 months, which allowed him to devote two months for the IPL.
Earlier this year, noted historian Ramachandra Guha stepped down from the Committee of Administrators citing inaction on the part of his fellow members against the prevalent issue of ‘conflict of interest’ in Indian cricket. In his resignation letter, he didn’t mention any name indirectly took a dig at Rahul Dravid who had both IPL and BCCI contracts and said that this was , “contrary to the spirit of the Lodha Committee.”