Ombudsman Jain to double up as BCCI's Ethics Officer: COA

The BCCI's newly-appointed ombudsman, Justice (Retd) DK Jain, will also be its ad-hoc Ethics Officer, the Committee of Administrators (COA) running Indian cricket said on Thursday.

The COA, in its 10th Status Report filed on October 28, 2018, had requested the Supreme Court to appoint an Ethics Officer in addition  to an Ombudsman for looking into the matters of Conflict of Interest.

"The Ld. Ombudsman of the BCCI, the Hon'ble Mr. Justice D.K. Jain (retd.), shall discharge the functions of the BCCI Ethics Officer, in addition to his role as the BCCI Ombudsman, as an ad-hoc arrangement till such time that an Ethics Officer is appointed," the COA said.

On March 12, the three-member COA requested Justice Jain to take over as Ethics Officer on an ad-hoc basis till a permanent appointment takes place.

Justice Jain agreed to double up as temporary Ethics Officer and will look into all the conflict of interest cases.

"Since transparency and measures to avoid conflict of interest are important aspects of the reforms process, there is a need for an Ethics Officer to be appointed at the earliest...," the COA said in its latest status report.

Justice Jain is already looking into Hardik Pandya-KL Rahul chat show controversy due to which the duo served provisional suspension, which was eventually lifted.