Ombudsman’s orders not acted upon

The ombudsman of the Indian cricket board, Justice (retd) AP Shah, has begun disposing of the flood of complaints alleging conflict of interest against administrators, members, coaches, selectors and cricketers that have come to him.

Until Sunday, he has passed orders in six of the 38 complaints received, but HT has found that the orders have either been ignored or not completely implemented.

One high-profile case of conflict of interest is against India off-spinner Harbhajan Singh. In 2013, he floated Bhajji Sports, a sports apparel company, but it came under the scanner for its association with six domestic teams. The player submitted that the company was owned by his mother Avtar Kaur.

Justice Shah directed that Harbhajan the BCCI should take an undertaking from Harbhajan that he would in no way be involved with the company as long as his BCCI contract existed. However, Bhajji is often seen promoting the products of Bhajji Sports on the social media. On Saturday, he unveiled a new hoodie jacket of his company via his Twitter and Instagram accounts.

Bhajji Sports director Vikram Sidhu defended Harbhajan’s association with the brand. “He has no commercial interest, whatsoever. He promotes our products as any other brand ambassador. Since we are not a very big company, we don’t pay him to promote our products. We make good clothes and equipment for him which he likes to use. That’s it.”

Former India batsman Pravin Amre, who is in line for the India batting coach’s job, has been told he cannot continue in the managing committee of the Mumbai Cricket Association (MCA) and be in the coaching staff of the Delhi Daredevils IPL team.

But the MCA is yet to act on the order.