BCCI Yet to Take Call on Contract Extension of Ombudsman DK Jain

BCCI ombudsman and ethics officer DK Jain is yet to hear from the top brass on his contract extension after his one-year term ended in February.

Justice Jain was appointed as Ombudsman cum Ethics Officer in February, 2019 and now it is up to the BCCI president Sourav Ganguly and secretary Jay Shah to offer him an extension.

“It was some time back that the CEO (Rahul Johri) had verbally asked me if I would be interested in an extension and I had said yes. But after that I haven’t yet heard from them. Obviously, now the situation is different due to the lockdown,” Justice (retired) Jain told PTI on Wednesday.

“Let BCCI come up with a formal (written) offer and I will definitely consider it,” Jain added.

Asked if he has received any new set of complaints, he replied: “I wouldn’t be knowing because BCCI sends me the list. Right now, the office is closed because of the lockdown. I don’t think there are any new cases of Conflict of Interest.”

Jain said there are five cases that are pending with him.

“If I remember correctly, there are are either four or five cases pending. One of them is Conflict of Interest case of Mayank Parikh,” said Jain.

Parikh is a former liaison officer of the Indian cricket team.

One of the complaints against Parikh was that he ran six clubs in Mumbai.

Jain’s tenure started with the “Koffee with Karan” controversy involving KL Rahul and Hardik Pandya.

He had subsequently heard numerous cases of Conflicts of Interest cases, notable being that of former Cricket Advisory Committee (CAC) members Sachin Tendulkar, Ganguly and VVS Laxman.

Back in February during an Apex Council meeting, appointment of separate Ombudsman and Ethics Officer was on the agenda but there hasn’t been much progress on that front.