Rediff

Switzerland, Jan 23: The government of Switzerland and the National Basketball Association of US have approached the Board of Control for Cricket in India for using Sachin Tendulkar and some other top Indian cricketers for furthering social causes through advertisements.

"The Swiss government approached us and wanted Sachin to do an ad with [world's number one men's tennis player] Roger Federer for a social cause. Sachin was thrilled and agreed to it immediately", said BCCI chief administrative officer Ratnakar Shetty in Mumbai.

"The NBA has also approached us and wants to utilise our players' services for furthering social causes," Shetty added on the sidelines of a media conference on Tuesday night to announce Boost Under-17 Cricket Cup tournament for school children.

"We, in the Mumbai Cricket Association [of which Shetty is the treasurer], had taken a policy not to allow juniors to play limited overs cricket but have relaxed it for this tournament since it's to be run on an all-India basis and we did not want Mumbai schools to be denied an opportunity to become all-India champions," Shetty said.

"In fact the BCCI has decided to scrap some junior age group tournaments and conduct a schools tournament instead. The board wants to hold events for only under-16 and under-19 age groups instead of for under-15, 17 and 19 as at present," he explained.