BCCI Ethics Officer lays down ground rules to ensure only genuine complaints are entertained

Inundated with frivolous complaints in recent times, the BCCI's Ombudsman and Ethics Officer D K Jain has devised a mechanism to ensure that only genuine complaints are entertained.

The newly formulated guidelines, uploaded by the BCCI on its website, come in the wake of a rise in a number of mail from various sources accusing cricketers of conflict of interest, including the ones against the legendary Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly and V V S Laxman.

Along with the complainant Sanjeev Gupta, the cricketers will be attending a hearing by Jain on May 14.

The guidelines stated, "It has been noticed that numerous emails are being received, which contain all kinds of allegations against past and present players, officials, functionaries of the Board of Control for Cricket in India, etc.

"This often results in delay in the processing of the genuine complaints or some of them, inadvertently, get ignored due to the sheer number of emails received by the Office of the Ethics Officer.

"Therefore, it has become absolutely necessary to devise a mechanism to ensure that only genuine complaints are received and ultimately entertained by the Office of the Ethics Officer, BCCI, which shall also ensure that the same get taken up and decided expeditiously and no time is wasted in dealing with frivolous/non-genuine Complaints." Gupta's argument is that Ganguly, Tendulkar and Laxman are associated with IPL franchises and are also members of the BCCI's Cricket Advisory Committee (CAC), which the BCCI constitution does not allow.

Ganguly is also the president of the Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB).

Guidelines to be followed to file a complaint with the ethics officer are:

1. Mode of filing:

A) Every Complaint before the Ethics Officer, BCCI shall be filed in physical form, comprising of 2 hard copies (first being the Original and the second being the photocopy thereof).

B) Such complaints shall be sent, either by post or by hand, to:

The Office of the Ethics Officer, The Board of Control for Cricket in India Cricket Centre, Wankhede Stadium, D-Road, Churchgate, Mumbai- 400 020.

Any complaint sent to any other address shall not be entertained and shall be deemed to have never been received.

C) In addition to the above, a scanned copy of the complaint shall be sent to the office of the Ethics Officer at the email ID: ethics.officer@bcci.tv.

D) Complaints filed, only by way of an email or by way of WhatsApp/SMS or such like other electronic modes of communication, without first filing the hard copies thereof in terms of paragraph 1 (a) above, or the personal email of either the Ethics Officer, BCCI or any of the officials of the BCCI shall not be entertained.

2. Necessary particulars:

Every Complaint filed with the Office of the Ethics Officer, BCCI shall mandatorily contain the following details of the complainant: A) Full Name, B) Father's/Husband's/Mother's Name, C) Age, D) Complete postal address along with pin code, E) Mobile No., F) Email id, G) Telephone (Landline) No., H) Identity and the address Proof of the Complainant (anyone - Aadhaar Card, Driving License, Passport or Voter id).

The complaint shall also contain the following details of the person complained against:

A) Full Name, B) Complete postal address along with with with pin code, C) Mobile No., D) Email id, E) Telephone (Landline) No.

3. Source of Information and authentication:

A) Every complaint must indicate the source of information and/or exact conflict of interest if any alleged, as prescribed in the rules and regulations.

B) Such Complaint filed with the Office of the Ethics Officer, BCCI must be supported by an Affidavit, duly attested/notarized by Oath Commissioner/ Notary Public.

4. The consequence of non-compliance of the practice directions: Any Complaint filed without complying with the practice directions, shall be liable to be rejected summarily, without going into its merits.

5) Applicability of practice directions: The complaints already filed by way of emails, in which, cognizance has so far not been taken, shall also be processed only after these practice directions are fully complied with.