Calcutta: The conflict of interest issue regarding two newly-appointed selectors, Palash Nandy and Madan Ghosh, has led to a war of words between the Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB) and its ombudsman Ushanath Banerjee.

The two selectors had informed the CAB earlier that they were not associated with any coaching camps and hence the conflict of interest didn't arise.

In a letter to Banerjee on Wednesday and signed by CAB president Sourav Ganguly, the association said: "We have gone through the content of the anonymous letter received by yourself... You must have noticed that the letter does not have any name or any signature of the sender and hence the intent of sending this communication is difficult to understand.

"I feel going forward as a Standard Operating Process, your esteemed self being appointed as an official ombudsman of the association should not entertain such letters, which as per me is written with notorious intent rather than actual awareness of the facts... The CAB will not entertain any such anonymous communication and as such yourself being an important part of the organisation should follow the same.

"Should the sender of any letter be serious about his matter being taken up by the association, then in that case it is imperative that the concerned person declare his/her identity officially. In the above scenario I feel you are not entitled to give any reply."

Banerjee shot his reply to the CAB president later in the evening saying he was "utterly shocked" at receiving such a letter.

"At the outset I make it explicitly clear that I have never acted in any manner nor provided any advice which is unsustainable in law...

"The basic foundation of transparency is to ensure that everyone acting in public domain must act in impeccable manner and no one, whatever be his/her status, acts with any mode which could be termed to be 'likely to be biased' or favouritism or misdemeanour and if an information if lodged against anyone contrary thereto, there must be some suitable preliminary inquiry into the allegations by a responsible officer," Banerjee wrote in his letter.

"It is widely acknowledged by the judiciary and vigilance authorities that in the interest of maintaining transparency, organisations world over take cognisance of anonymous information. With there being no mechanism to ensure safety of whistle blowers, anonymous complaints are one of the accepted modus to focus on wrongdoings.

Shutting the door on such avenue would further depict and permit non-transparent acts and conducts of be it a sporting body or otherwise."