Questions over selection panel, Sehwag considered for Delhi captaincy

One of the mysteries of Delhi cricket this year has been the Under-25 team which crashed out of the championships thanks to some ordinary selection policies. Sanjay Srivastava had allegedly held the sports committee team to ransom, and apparently got his way to have his son Shelly Shaurya installed as the Delhi U-25 skipper.

The team crashed out quite early and not without controversies. The chairman of the Under-25 selection panel, NP Singh was abused by a former Delhi cricketer after senior cricketer Yogesh Nagar was left out of the team. It created such a furore that DDCA vice-president Chetan Chauhan had to go to the then DDCA president, Arun Jaitley, to apprise him of the controversy. It has been learnt that he also requested him to change the panel, especially remove NP Singh who is considered to be very close to the current sports committee.

Quite surprisingly, NP is now sitting along with Chetan Chauhan in the senior selection committee as one of the decision makers for Delhi’s limited overs team that is to play in Syed Mushtaq Ali T20s as well as Vijay Hazare one-dayers later this month.

The sports committee had decided to change the selection senior panel after the poor performance in Ranji Trophy and only chairman Chetan Chauhan survived.

The probables for the games will be announced on Friday evening and a lot of fireworks are expected to take place in the DDCA.

Of much interest will be the announcement of the Delhi skipper. It has been learnt that the selection committee, pressed by the sports committee, is likely to install Virender Sehwag as the captain of the limited overs team, replacing Gautam Gambhir who was the skipper in the longer format of Delhi during this domestic season. If it happens, it won’t be without a lot of debate. 

 

 

 

Delhi selection commitee changed, Gidwani back

In what could be a last-ditch effort by the current Sports Committee to save face, the selection panel has been completely overhauled ahead of the one-dayers and T20 games. Only Chetan Chauhan, the chairman of selectors retains his post while the other four, including former Vivek Razdan, have been replaced by Hari Gidwani, Varun Kumar, NP Singh and Anil Jain. Sports secretary Sunil Dev will continue to be the convenor. The Delhi team’s pathetic show left a lot to be desired. Inspite of having players like Gautam Gambhir, Virender Sehwag and Ashish Nehra, the team failed to make it to the knockouts. In fact, there had been discussions for a long time to bring about changes. One wonders though, if just changing the selection panel alone will bring Delhi some luck. The Sports Committee met on Monday evening to discuss the matter and subsequently the change was made. “We want to start afresh and do well in limited overs format,” said a member of the sports committee.

New selection panel: Chetan Chauhan (chairman), Varun Kumar, NP Singh, Anil Jain and Hari Gidwani

 

How DDCA can't pay their members as per Companies Act

A few weeks back, it came to light that Virat Kohli’s mentor Rajkumar Sharma was threatening to quit from his post of state’s U-19 coach.

Sharma, who headed Delhi’s only successful team at the national level this year – the U-19 team made the semifinals while other state teams faltered, rubbished it later but the news spread like wildfire and disconcerted quite a few officials.

True or not, talks like these have been gaining ground.

And what is making such disillusionment among coaches and other staff members popular is the law under which the Delhi and District Cricket Association lies. The Section 25 of the Companies Act under which DDCA (and even Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh bodies) are registered cannot pay their members if they use their services.

“Since cricket is a professional sport and requires a lot of skill and training, very often we have to turn to our former players who are also the members of the association. The problem occurs as we cannot pay them other than out of pocket expenses or other minimal expenses,” says DDCA president Sneh Bansal, who replaced Arun Jaitely as the head of the body. “It is futile if we import coaches as they’ll ask for a lot of money.”

The only way they can make salary payments is through a special application to the Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA).

“We have filed an application and are awaiting the permission. Whatever the government says, we’ll abide by it,” says Bansal.

In fact, vice-president Chetan Chauhan is getting only 2 to 2.5 lakh per annum, for his expenses only. It is well below the standard salaries.

Just recently, the minister of state for the MCA was posed a question in a Parliament session as to whether the ministry is taking any action regarding the flouting of rules, apparently regarding the payment of salaries. The minister replied yes, admitting that action has been taken.

The top bosses in DDCA say they have already paid the fine and they paid to their members as it was the prevailing system and ‘it was being followed for over 50 years’.

“We have paid fines and now changed the system and are looking for permission,” said a senior official.