Sachin Tendulkar gets BCCI notice just after his birthday, conflict of interest raised

Along with Laxman, the maestro has time till 28 April to file appropriate response

Days after asking Sourav Ganguly to explain his position on triple hats in BCCI's administrative set-up, the ethics officer has sent show cause notices to the other 2 members of the Cricket Advisory Committee. Sachin Tendulkar and VVS Laxman have been given time till April 28 to reply on their roles with respective IPL franchises while being part of the CAC. Sachin who turned 46 yesterday was not available to comment on the notice.

The complaint was filed by Sanjeev Gupta, a member of the Madhya Pradesh Cricket Association (MPCA). Sources claim that the Sachin Tendulkar is not drawing any financial favour from his Mumbai stint and that all 3 are serving on an honorary basis as CAC members.

As per the notice to Tendulkar and Laxman, Justice Jain wrote: "A complaint has been received by the Ethics Officer of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) under Article 39 of the Rules and Regulations of the BCCI, regarding certain acts, allegedly constituting as 'conflict of interest' on your part."

Tendulkar is the mentor of Mumbai Indians and Laxman also serves in the same capacity at Sunrisers Hyderabad. After retired Supreme Court Judge Justice Jain took charge, this is the third such allegation with regard to prohibited dual roles of mutually conflicting domains.

"On your failure to respond to the present notice, the Ethics Officer shall be constrained to proceed in your absence, without giving any further opportunity of filing a response to the Complaint, to you. A copy of this Notice is also being sent to the BCCI, to enable it to file its response to the accompanying complaint, in writing on or before 28th April 2019 before the Ethics Officer," Justice Jain wrote.

Commenting on the issue, a senior BCCI official said on conditions of anonymity, "since Ganguly was issued notice, the Ombudsman probably issued the notices to both Tendulkar and Laxman also. But I can confirm that Tendulkar doesn't take a single penny from Mumbai Indians. He is just doing voluntary service. Also in BCCI, he never got paid for his services as CAC".

Bottom Line - All three, Sourav, Sachin and Laxman, were part of CAC that picked the senior national coach Ravi Shastri in July 2017.