DK Jain to continue for another year as BCCI Ethics Officer and Ombudsman

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has decided to extend the contract of its Ombudsman and Ethics Officer, Justice (retired) DK Jain, by a year. Jain, who joined as the first-ever ombudsman of the Board and was later given the additional responsibility of the ethics officer, completed his term in February this year. The BCCI formally extended his contract last week.



With the whole nation under lockdown, Jain has said he will conduct virtual hearings for the time being. “The Board communicated with me (about an extension) and I have given my consent. I have formally resumed office for another term, which is of one year,” Jain was quoted as saying to Sportstar. “For now, all the hearings will be done online and once things improve, we will decide.”



Although there were hearings in the past, there hasn’t been any verdict yet. A verdict is awaited on the Conflict of Interest accusations against former Indian cricket team liaison officer Mayank Parikh who is believed to run six clubs in Mumbai.



Jain said he will take stock of things soon. “For two months, there was nobody (as the ethics officer), so I need to look at where things stand. I will go through the details and see where things stand,” he said. There were speculations that the board would look beyond Jain after his term ended in February.



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But in the past three months when no cricket was possible due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the BCCI apex council members came to a decision to keep Jain for another year. Following which the Board officially communicated with Jain and convinced him to stay.



Soon after taking the charge in 2019, Jain had to handle several high-profile cases. He handled the ‘Koffee with Karan’ controversy, involving KL Rahul and Hardik Pandya – who were called back from the tour of Australia for their inappropriate comments during a talk show. They were also handed suspensions.



He also took care of Conflict of Interest cases against Sachin Tendulkar, VVS Laxman and current BCCI president Sourav Ganguly – who were part of the Cricket Advisory Committee back then. However, all three of them were cleared of their charges.



There were also conflict cases filed against Kapil Dev, Anshuman Gaekwad, Shantha Rangaswamy. Even former India captain Rahul Dravid was called for hearing following conflict of interest charges after he took charge as the director of National Cricket Academy.