Captain Gambhir dictates terms, has his own set of players

With the weather clement, a lot more people turned out at the Ferozeshah Kotla on Wednesday than had dropped in at any day last week. There was an added attraction too --- the Ranji Trophy  squad had been announced. There were happy faces, sad faces, surprised faces and angry faces. To give details of everyone’s reaction would take a lot of time but you could see all sorts of reactions. The only man who probably would have walked home happy and laughing was the team captain Gautam Gambhir. These days he is behaving like he owns the Ranji team, some say he is almost like a dictator. And the choice of the squad shows that he was probably the only one who spoke in selection matters. Of course, successful stint with the Kolkata Knight Riders has helped him get that chip on the shoulder. And no doubt he has been treated unfairly in a way at the national level. But then this is life and this is cricket. It brings the best down to earth.

With Virender Sehwag and Mithun Manhas out of the team and moving to Haryana and Jammu and Kashmir, there was always talk that Gambhir, Unmukt Chand and Rajat Bhatia will play a key role. But the door on Bhatia was shut. There are different reasons being attributed to it.

Tapeshwar Tyagi, who was the manager with the one-day team in Dharamsala last season, says that one wouldn’t stand in slip position, the other wouldn’t move from slip. Virender Sehwag didn’t field anywhere else except slips while Bhatia wouldn’t field in the slip at all. This made Gambhir angry. Some also talk of the fact that Bhatia never moved up the batting order despite being asked to take responsibility. He was enjoying the game in the lower order, scoring plenty of runs off the old ball when the opposition had lost bite. The youngsters would be pushed up and sacrificed.

In a confrontation in Dharamsala, Gambhir had blasted both Sehwag and Bhatia. We know what the media will carry --- all goodie stuff that Gambhir never had any issues with Bhatia and that he was his friend and that team comes first. And that the two have played almost the same number of matches for KKR. But all that is poppycock. Gambhir had serious issues with Bhatia, his one-time favourite at the KKR. And there could be genuine reasons for this dislike as well.

In fact last season, when Chetan Chauhan had floated the idea of having Bhatia as the skipper, Gambhir was pretty livid. This was during the season. Chauhan saab, in his love for Bhatia, had once irked former Delhi skipper Shikhar Dhawan too by pushing Bhatia in the hot seat.

Delhi began well last season, then struggled in away games. They lost their quarterfinal to a very weak Mumbai, who probably fielded their worst-ever side.

If Gambhir thinks that Delhi players are too old, he has some valid reason. He has probably rightly brought in youngsters. But are they capable and what about the ageing bowling line-up? Is he and the selectors trying to suggest that there are no bowlers in Delhi other than Pawan Suyal, Sumit Narwal and Pradeep Sangwan. These are bowlers going over the hill and still the selectors have kept faith in them. And no, they are not incisive. The only youngster who has been brought in is Sarang Rawat and that boy failed BCCI’s age test a couple of seasons back. Parvinder Awana is the only one who looks the part. Add some of Narwal’s grit. But that is all.

Let us now look at the team....

Batting: Vaibhav Rawal, Milind Kumar, Nitish Rana, Yogesh Nagar and Dhruv Shorey make the young line-up that’ll help Gambhir and Unmukt.
Rawal played one Ranji match last year and scored 11. He has been considered very promising but he has not had any decent score since he made his debut. And he is too slow.
Nitish Rana is one quality lad. He plays for LB Shastri Club and sources people him so much so that one said that Sehwag asked him to come over to Haryana. Don’t know whether its true. But the lad seems to have a lot of promise.
Yogesh Nagar has been on and off. He didn’t play any Ranji match last year. Played three one-dayers and scored a total of 41 at the average of 13.67. In T20s he made 95 in four matches at 23.33. But over the years he hasn’t done anything to merit place in Delhi team now. Nagar’s action was found suspect and he was told not to bowl.
Dhruv Shorey had played two U-23 matches last year and averaged 16.33. There is no place for Mohit Sharma, who had shown his mettle. The selectors said they discussed him for a long, long time though. Jaideep Chauhan, whose dad Padam lobbied very hard, didn’t make it either though he impressed with a century against Mumbai last season for Delhi U-23. Normally if you hit a ton against Delhi’s arch-rivals Mumbai in age group cricket, you are considered a talent for the top.

Pace bowling: Sumit Narwal, Pradeep Sangwan, Pawan Suyal, Parvinder Awana and Sarang Rawat.
Narwal is 33 and Gambhir likes the fact that he can bat a bit too. But what’s the point when he has to do a batsman’s job. He does pick wickets but often when opposition scores a lot.
Pradeep Sangwan, even though officially is 24 looks like a 32 year old injury-hit medium pacer, who trundles in to deliver the ball without being able to even bend for a little extra effort. He was banned by the BCCI for a year for having tested positive. He took five wickets in three innings last year and a couple of them were tailenders. But he says he has worked on fitness. So let’s see.
Pawan Suyal has played just three Ranji matches over the last two years. He hasn’t got a wicket and has given away plenty of runs.
Sarang Rawat was supposed to be a player of promise. But unfortunately his career has not blossomed. A couple of years back, while playing for U-19s, he was found cheating. The DDCA hadn’t sent his age certificate, so the BCCI got his test done and he was found overage.
Spin bowling: The biggest question was over off-spinner with Manan Sharma almost a certainty as the left-arm spinner. Manan was lucky though last year with Delhi playing all their home matches at underprepared tracks at the Kotla.
And for some reason the wise men kept Manan’s competition Pawan Negi out. Negi was on Wednesday selected for the India A squad that’ll play South Africa in a warm-up game at the Palam grounds.
The selectors kept offie Shivam Sharma, a success at the IPL and a certainty in the squad, in reserves but selected Pulkit Narang, a trainee of Virat Kohli’s coach Rajkumar Sharma. There have been talks over the fact that Virat Kohli might have put in a word to the officials to take care of the kid from his coach’s West Delhi Cricket Academy. That could be true but it could also be out of thin air. Narang has picked 40-odd wickets in the DDCA league this season and for once you feel that a youngster is being given a chance on the basis of league performance which finally proves that league is at least of some value. There aren’t many young off-spinners around with Manoj Chauhan, having been tried and discarded. Mohd Bilal is another youngster whose name was doing the rounds.
Wicketkeeper: Mohit Ahlawat was the biggest surprise having not played any age group cricket. With Delhi struggling to get a decent wicketkeeper with Puneet Bisht not doing enough. His replacement was Rahul Yadav and the two were juggled last year. Neither did exceptionally well. However, Ahlawat was pluck out of nowhere. The LB Shastri kid (now don’t get surprised if I say Gambhir has a soft corner for that club), scored seven centuries and played two sterling innings. He made 180 against Sonnet and rescued his team from 102/9 to chase down 240. But this was all in DDCA league cricket. Ahlawat is from Sonepat and had failed to make the cut for Haryana even this year. But Delhi and Gambhir found him to their liking. Ideally, they should have gone for Rishabh Pant, the U-19 keeper who is among the India U-19 probables. But they somehow didn’t.

Honestly, it looks like Gambhir was the only one with a say in the selections. Ajay Jadeja didn’t say a thing. But two games into the season, things could be different if Delhi craps. It could be Gambhir in the backseat and people criticising him for backing players from LB Shastri and those of his liking. It could bring Jaddu in the picture. 

Relay fast cancelled after Tihara's attempt to bring in Dahiya pushes Jadeja to mentor's role

There is a local saying, “Mere ghantey pe”. It means “I give a damn” or “I don’t care”. What Vinod Tihara & Co have been doing over the last one week proves the phrase true --- trying to fight a decision that came right from the top, some say the finance minister. However, his latest attempt to cock a snook at the Executive Committee’s decision which in reality was the decision of the three government nominees who have, reportedly, themselves been ordained, has fallen flat.

On Tuesday evening, the Ferozeshah Kotla was abuzz with the sound of hammer pounding the nails into the ground and the setting up of a shamiana for members of the Tihara group, who had threatened to sit on a relay fast.

For some odd reason they called off the fast after having hyped up the threat to enormous levels. What transpired behind the doors is still shrouded in mist, but the group says they have been given assurances by the senior officials. In a whatsapp message Ashok Katyal circulated to all his friends, it was mentioned that some sort of assurance has been given to them.

To start with, Tuesday morning saw police at the Kotla doors even as the nets continued. This was probably because a brawl had taken place on Monday evening over the U-19 players on trial. Gautam Gambhir was there at RAnji nets on Tuesday morning and barely interacted with Ajay Jadeja. You see Gambhir is hell bent on bringing back his Kolkata Knight Riders coach Vijay Dahiya, who was Delhi coach last year. He had asked the executive about the role being assigned to Dahiya after they’d made Jadeja the coach.  

The executive, with orders from the top bosses, had appointed Jadeja and the sports committee’s six members of the Tihara group decided to challenge it first. Then they tried to accommodate their men with the executive committee’s appointees.

The list had a different role for Jadeja. He was made the mentor and Dahiya the chief coach. Basically, it was meant to be like: Jadeja you just mentor whatever players we provide you with! You don’t have a say in picking teams. Two more selectors came in to the addition of the three already appointed by the executive committee for the senior selection panel. Then, there was a set of five selectors for each of the age groups and it seems that all of DDCA’s guys had been accommodated. These are things that make DDCA really an amazing body.  

If the executive budges then there’ll be a problem and Tihara & Co would like everyone to believe that they have managed to bend the executive.

But have they? One reason doing the rounds for the postponement of the relay fast is that none of the people behind it turned up. There is police at the gate constantly for the past two days (Tuesday and Wednesday mornings), so it would have resulted in a big problem. That they had set the tent within 200 metres of Kotla is in itself illegal and the police could have evacuated them anytime. So Padam Chauhan, a Tihara sidekick, who had grandly announced this relay fast protest, himself didn’t turn up.

And the meeting that was supposed to be held on Tuesday evening that was to announce the new set of selectors and coaching staff, where even the President Sneh Bansal was present never took place with the leader of the faction Vinod Tihara excusing himself and going home.

By the way, joint secretary Anil Jain and Maqsood Karim were told to leave the nets on Tuesday and Gautam Vadhera, a member of the newly elected member of the sports committee and part of the anti-Tihara camp, was there handling the affairs. “They (Anil Jain and Maqsood Karim) were unauthorised to attend these nets,” he said. Both Maqsood, who was caught flicking peanuts from a dressing room during the last Ranji season and was banished from the dressing room area, and Anil Jain are part of the Tihara camp.

Anyway there is still doubt over the fact whether these two guys will get the money or not. Chetan Chauhan has refused to honour the payment (1800 rupees per day is what Anil Jain will claim for attending the nets), saying that these guys were unauthorised.

The protest shamiana being set up on the order of Tihara & Co
on  Tuesday evening

Brawl in U-19 camp, fledgling sports committee announces hunger strike

The Delhi and District Cricket Association (DDCA) had declared Monday as an off day out of respect for Jagmohan Dalmiya, the BCCI president who had passed away on Sunday night. Then there were heavy rains that lashed the city in the evening, so much so that the traffic at ITO bridge was chock-a-block and going anywhere near the Ferozeshah Kotla would have meant testing your patience. But then these days DDCA is so abuzz with activities and happenings, there is so much of unpredictability, so much at stake that even Monday had officials strolling around, picking up fights and having animated discussions.

The morning had gone off well, with the Ranji squad observing 2-minute silence in Dalmiya’s memory. Then skipper Gautam Gambhir and new coach Ajay Jadeja seemingly struck off well, despite the apparent differences. The selectors, Vinay Lamba, Rahul Sanghvi and Hari Gidwani were there. All of these guys obviously left all the differences and shenanigans to the officials.

The evening, with the Under-19 camp, however came with a rush of blood. Naresh Sharma ‘Tappu’, member of the sports working committee and an aide of Vinod Tihara, rammed into Nikhil Chopra, Sunil Valson and Suresh Luthra, the three junior selectors appointed by the executive committee. This was just a trailor of what is yet to come due to the fight between the sports committee and the executive, and it looked pretty ugly while it lasted. There were well over 100-125 kids even though the selectors had given a list of 78 kids. So many kids meant that kids from Anil Jain’s list of U-19 probables had also walked in. To give you a clear picture, Anil Jain is allied to the sports committee and Tihara. They wanted to push their kids too. The selectors somehow warded off Tappu & Co but so many kids turned it into a fish market, says Pramod Sood, a DDCA member.

Tappu says that they had just requested the selectors to keep two kids each from all clubs in addition to their 78 and give everyone a fair chance. Well, these many more kids would have certainly turned it into a bigger fish market.

And by evening, a press release from Padam Chauhan, a sports working committee member and a sidekick of Tihara, threatened a ‘relay hunger strike’ on September 23. They’ll start the strike at 8 am. Well, honestly it is a pretty lovely proposition – you stay hungry taking turns. First you, then him, then him and it goes on and on. We are pretty sure that some of them must be diabetic and they can’t stay hungry for too long. Hence the relay strike.

Anyway, the seeds of this agitation and quarrel were laid on Sunday itself in a sports committee meeting. The Tihara group had said they’d pick their own set of selectors disregarding the decision taken by the executive committee. “We’ll try to accommodate those appointed by the executive committee too,” Tihara said rather generously. “It is our right to appoint selectors and run cricket not theirs.”

These guys are sticking to their guns even if time seems to be running out. However, in what came as a shock to them, their opposition in the committee, the four guys belonging to CK Khanna-Manchanda-Chetan Chauhan group, don’t seem to be that keen on it. Even after being offered an option to suggest two names each for what could be five-member selection panels in each of the age groups, they issued a press release saying that they are firmly behind the two selection panels, senior and junior, appointed by the executive committee.

The differences may not have arisen had Tihara & Co promised to also give them a proportional representation in the support staff which they had demanded in Sunday’s meeting. Once the promise wasn’t made and the the talk was simply done in thin air, the four issued the press release announcing their decision to back the executive committee. Tihara, used to having his own way with full majority in previous years, is finding it tough now with these four members of the opposition in the panel. Hence, the decision to go on a hunger strike on Wednesday.  

The sports committee had on Sunday planned to meet today, Tuesday (22^nd September) at 11 am to take their fight further and announce their selection panel and importantly bring Vijay Dahiya as coach. Going by what looked like their struggle in the U-19 camp on Monday, they seem to have dropped their shoulders and are taking it forward in agitational style like Aam Aadmi Party. Wonder what new thing will be announced in Tuesday’s meeting and will their four opponents agree to it.

By the way, there is also a finance committee meeting today to discuss a way to re-open the Central Bank account where 6-7 crore rupees is frozen. This is to ensure that cricket is brought back into play and the South Africa Test match is held in Delhi as on schedule. 

Has Sports Working Committee outlived its utility?

So the sports working committee is going to be disbanded. You don’t believe it? Don’t. But the way Friday evening’s meeting went hinted as much. With six people belonging to Vinod Tihara-Sneh Bansal-Sunil Dev faction and four belonging to CK Khanna-Ravindra Manchanda-Chetan Chauhan group, there were bound to be differences.

First, the minority faction wanted to hold it in the bar. But it was turned down by the majority faction and then, when the meeting moved to Sunil Dev’s room, there was massive debate over the choice of convenor. At the end of it all, Tihara came out announcing that he has been made the convenor. The other four wanted a co-convenor from their faction and when this wasn’t accepted and Naresh Sharma ‘Tappu’ of Tihara faction made the co-convenor, they came out upset. The next meeting was slotted for Saturday evening and then when that didn’t materialise, it was set for 1 pm on Sunday, which is today afternoon.

Both Sneh Bansal and Sunil Dev were present in the meeting in that room and it was amazing how heavily the balance was tilted towards the Tihara faction. So an email from Ashok Katyal, a key accomplice of Tihara, was shot to the media saying Tihara is the convenor and Tappu his co-convenor. And what does the media do? Some of it ignores, the other publishes it. You can’t blame the ones who published it. These DDCA guys are masters at deceiving everyone and creating confusion.

The fact of the matter is that the other four didn’t agree and the news had not come on an official letterhead --- just a simple email. Even if it were on a letterhead and DDCA letterheads are easily available – am damn sure even to the vendor selling kulchay outside, there wouldn’t have been any guarantee of any authenticity.  We’ve seen with the three different sets of Ranji squads dispatched last week. All three came out on the letterheads.

So the issue raised in the meeting was that there is no provision for co-convenor or something like that when the four demanded their pound of flesh.  

The four fished out the original copy of the minutes of the emergent committee meeting, held in 1994, that gave birth to the sports working committee and which had all the officials fighting in that meeting. CK Khanna and Sneh Bansal were there and it was held under the chairmanship of KK Mehra. The minutes have no mention or need to have any convenor.  In the words of these guys, all 10 are equal and they can take whatever decision they want to take. Well, you know what we mean. There is always a way of bringing things to a standstill. The practice was to have a convenor and now you don’t have one because there is no provision.

This was a ticking bomb that was bound to explode someday. All this while these fellows went along with the post of convenor, primarily because there was outright majority for one faction or the other. But now that they are divided, these things will happen. And this is just the beginning. “Aagey, aagey dekhiye, hota hai kya?”

In the words of some senior officials, the judges who oversaw the SWC elections, GP Thareja and Babu Lal, are preparing a dossier that’ll embarrass the DDCA more. They may argue to stop or limit the sphere of influence of sports working committee.

The crux of all this was laid by Kirti Azad and his close aide Sameer Bahadur alongwith former India captain Bishan Singh Bedi. They had sent out a list of 18 clubs that had seen a change of ownership over the last 10-12 years. And their transfer (or illegal sale), was not recorded or approved by the executive committee. That means the owners have changed and their votes have tilted in the favour of people who have helped them buy the club.

And then you have the five clubs whose ownership is in dispute. You also have one Mohan Meakins club who has been taken over by Madan Lal but who is not allowed to vote.

So blaming the judges for taking 80-odd days is fine but what the entire process has done is highlighted the problems that the sports working committee has created for itself.

Ravindra Manchanda, the DDCA treasurer, says this (disbanding SWC) should happen anytime soon. He is hopeful that it’ll happen by next week.

In all honesty it should. Why? Because with verdict split, you’ll have lots of compromises and fights. Unless they act as good boys and promise not to fight, which is unlikely, then you allow them to continue. Else, every good thing has its period of utility. After which it should be disbanded. At least Delhi skipper Gautam Gambhir, who was appointed unanimously by all the selectors on Saturday, will have a free mind to play with. He wouldn’t have to budge under the pressure of any official.

September 25 deadline for Delhi Test match, BCCI secy Thakur needs balance sheet and Anil Jain does it again

On Thursday afternoon, Delhi and District Cricket Association’s four officials, CK Khanna, Ravindra Manchanda, Chetan Chauhan and Sunil Dev went to meet BCCI secretary Anurag Thakur at his residence. The three government nominees, Parvesh Verma, Rajan Tewari and Sunil Yadav, who had proposed a committee, were also present. On agenda was procurement of funds for the rest of the season as Delhi begin their domestic cricket.

Thakur ticked them off and asked them whether they’ll be able to host the fourth Test against South Africa. In all probability the Test will be held as the finance minister and the BCCI want it to happen at the Ferozeshah Kotla. However, the BCCI has given them September 25 as the final date to let them know if the Test will be hosted by them or not.

So, all rests on September 25 and what message DDCA sends out to them.

But what ensued in the meeting should put everyone to shame. DDCA president SP Bansal didn’t turn up even when he was called because he was probably too embarrassed to face the BCCI secretary. Bansal’s alleged round-tripping of 1.55 crore rupees is one sore point due to which the balance sheet hadn’t been signed. Last week, some directors hastily signed it. But signing the balance sheet means that the directors are approving of illegality of transaction and no one wants to take that risk. So the balance sheet hasn’t been approved and sent to BCCI and that is why the Board is withholding money.

That much Thakur made clear. Thakur added that he has already sanctioned about 6-7 crore rupees in instalments to run cricket and BCCI can’t keep doing it. “You bring the balance sheet and take the money,” he has reportedly told them.

But will they bring the balance sheet? Another thing discussed was the Central Bank of India account where rupees 6-7 crore of DDCA money has been stored, and which has been sealed after Sunil Dev filed a police complaint.

Manchanda and Sunil Dev had a massive fight on the issue.

So will the account be re-opened? It should be unless DDCA wants to make a mockery of it all.

The DDCA has to pay plenty of dues. They have to pay 4.5 lakh rupees for the SG balls. They also have to pay dues for water and there are pending bills.

Thakur also made it clear that the players’ dues have to be paid if future funding is to be continued and this is where Manchanda gave vent to his fury at Dev.

The news also is that the DDCA officials aren’t too happy with the interference of the government directors. In a letter Pramod Jain, one of the club owners, has written to them saying, “The results of the SWC elections were to be declared today i.e 16th September and with results to be declared within 12 hours, it would be sensible that the panels should be declared after consulting the sports working committee.”

Jain also added that the powers of the sports committee (SWC) is greater than that of the executive committee (EC) and without the concurrence of the SWC, EC cannot assume all powers to run cricket.

The problem with this assumption is that there will be fireworks in the meeting. The SWC is expected to meet later today evening at 5 pm and with Vinod Tihara-Sunil-Dev and Bansal having six members in that and CK Khanna-Chetan Chauhan-Manchanda having four members, there are going to be disagreements, firstly with the panel and then with the players.

Already Joint Secretary (sports) Anil Jain had sent out a list of 76 probables for the Delhi U-19 camp. Salil Seth, who is the convenor of the selection committee for all junior cricket (U-19, U-16 and U-14), was angry. He told Hindustan Times newspaper that this is ridiculous. “We’ll hold a meeting on Saturday and then we will decide and send out the list. Anil Jain is one of the signatories on the resolution that allows us and our selection committee to function.”

Anil Jain says that he did this in the capacity of being the joint secretary sports. “I called all the players to just begin the process. When the selectors come, they can have a look at the players and select from them.”

However, DDCA director Ashok Sharma has lambasted him. As reported by the Hindustan Times, he has made it clear that this is unauthorised as Anil Jain is no one to send out such a list. “This is illegal,” says Ashok Sharma “Mama”. There are fears that he had called his own preferred set of players to the camp, ignoring others and the selectors will be forced to pick players from out of them.   

Nets continue, selectors pay visit

With no coaching staff on Wednesday morning, Anil Jain (in white
shirt) and Maqsood Karim (in yellow shirt) handled the nets.  

A day after the appointment of selection committee panel, chairman of selectors Vinay Lamba and co-selector Hari Gidwani made an appearance at Delhi’s Ranji Trophy nets, on Thursday.

Govt nominees step in to save the day, name Ajay Jadeja as Delhi coach, set up selection panels

Tuesday ended on a bitter note for many officials at the home of Delhi cricket. All the top warring Delhi and District Cricket Association (DDCA) officials got kicked on their backside as the government nominees swung into action following confusion over the appointment of coaches and selectors. With the judges, overseeing sports working committee elections, not declaring the results even after two weeks have passed and they’ve been into the election process for about 80 days, DDCA’s government nominees finally put their foot down and took a strong decision, appointing two sets of selectors – for junior and senior cricket and also appointing Ajay Jadeja as the chief coach of Delhi cricket.

That should put the catfight among officials to rest, at least for now. In DDCA’s parlance, ‘government nominees ne officials ko phatte lagaya’.

The three nominees, Parvesh Verma, Rajan Tiwari and Sunil Yadav sent out a letter saying they had been upset with the news stories published across all newspapers on Saturday, the 12^th September, that ridiculed DDCA’s factionalism which resulted in three sets of teams going out to the press. Equally worse was the tussle over appointment of coaches and mentor.

The trio stated that they are appointing Ajay Jadeja as chief coach of Delhi replacing Vijay Dahiya from last year. Dahiya had been a favourite of Vinod Tihara group. The nominees have set up a senior selection committee, which will look after the Ranji Trophy and U-23 teams with Vinay Lamba as chairman. Hari Gidwani and Rahul Sanghvi will be the other two selectors in the three-member panel.

The three-member junior selection committee will be chaired by Nikhil Chopra, who will be assisted by Suresh Luthra and Sunil Valson.

The government nominees had proposed this and the proposal was duly signed by the 12 directors.

It has been learnt that vice-president Chetan Chauhan has threatened to resign from the post following this decision. He had proposed the name of Madan Lal as mentor, which was protested by Vinod Tihara group. Surinder Khanna was appointed as assistant coach by Ashok Sharma group. After attending the first day of nets, he didn’t appear on the second day.

Apparently, captain Gautam Gambhir was annoyed at all the events and didn’t turn up on the second day when the Delhi team only had their warm-up and fitness exercises. There is a belief that he had a whiff of things to come so he didn’t attend the camp.

Amid all this confusion and expecting that there will be brouhaha over selection of the team, the nominees took this strong step. Some unconfirmed sources say that the push had come from the top echelons of polity, the finance minister of the country, who had been the president of the DDCA till last year and who was apprised of the situation.

Whatever be the case and whoever was behind this, the decision has at least saved Delhi cricket’s face for the time being.

Gambhir turns up on first day of nets as judges' blunder puts cricket in limbo

The scene in the Delhi and District Cricket Association (DDCA) is grim to say the least. And with both the warring factions at loggerheads and closely tied following the sports working committee elections, there is little chance any one will give way. And there is no chance of announcement of a result anytime soon. Which means cricket will continue the way it has been and there will be push and pull from both the factions regarding players’ inclusion.

After days of speculation, Monday eventually saw the camp starting with captain Gautam Gambhir leading the charge. There were about 40-45 players under his wings. Anil Jain, of the Vinod Tihara faction and who had signed one of the three teams, was there as net coordinator and looked pretty cheerful in his office. Surender Khanna, who had been appointed assistant coach in the list sent out by the DDCA executive committee director Ashok Sharma too was there at nets. Madan Lal, who has been appointed mentor by Chetan Chauhan who also sent out a list, will most likely join on Wednesday as he has taken off on Monday and Tuesday. He had told the Hindustan Times newspaper that he will turn up only when things get sorted.

However, the crux of the matter has been the judges’ decision and how they blundered on a simple process. Normally, you don’t question judges’ decision. However, they could have easily avoided all this confusion by first deciding on the ownership of the five disputed clubs and then going ahead with the elections. That they didn’t, has brought the situation to such a pass.

They could have easily let the decision on the ownership be sent to the court or could have allowed both the factions of the two clubs to vote. But they didn’t and first went for the elections. Had the election results been one-sided then there would have been no issue. But unfortunately, the results have come down to a very close fight, 6-4 in Tihara’s favour. Now whichever faction he favours with his decision in the case of ownership of the five clubs, the other one is bound to go to the court as the stakes are high. So as of now the judges’ decision to drag this on for so long and get the priorities wrong has put the entire sports committee in a limbo and open to compromises.  

Three teams for Delhi Ranji, which one is the right one!

By now you may have gleaned the papers as to what is happening in the Delhi and District Cricket Association (DDCA). We don’t need to tell you that three lists of probables have been sent out for the Delhi Ranji camp and that apart from an issue over players, there is a brouhaha over the choice of coaches.

While Chetan Chauhan is hell bent on having Madan Lal as the head coach-cum-mentor, the rival Vinod Tihara group, who form last year’s sports working committee, have not named anyone as coach. They have put the onus on captain Gautam Gambhir and want him to handle the team.

Gambhir was quoted as saying by the Hindustan Times as saying that he is still not aware of the team, coach or the plans. “I have no knowledge of the team, camp, coach or how things will progress. I have been preparing for the upcoming season at a personal level. However, as far as the squad is concerned, I am yet to be informed. This is DDCA’s job,” he was quoted by the Hindustan Times.

Interestingly Gambhir and last year’s Delhi coach Vijay Dahiya gel well. The two formed a team during last year’s Ranji season and have had a successful partnership in the Indian Premier League at the helm of Kolkata Knight Riders. Dahiya has supposedly been the man being pushed by Vinod Tihara’s group. And Chauhan has been objecting to his appointment. It remains to be seen how it all develops. However, Naresh Sharma ‘Tappu’ said that they have shortlisted 2-3 names for the post of coach.

Ashok Sharma, a DDCA director sent out his own list and he pushed the name of former India keeper Surender Khanna in the list. It will be interesting to see how all this folds out on Monday morning, the day of the camp.

We are publishing all the three lists, so that you get an idea as to what players are being pushed by whom.

The two judges, who have been appointed at 10 lakh rupees for the entire season, however, are still sitting on the results with no headway in sight. Which faction has won is still not clear and if there is still no decision on the five disputed clubs on whose votes the entire thing rests, these things will get worse.

As of now Tihara group leads 6-4. And if it stays like this, there are bound to be fireworks. 

No breakthrough as clubs sale issue crops up

Friday evening, former cricketers gathered at Ferozeshah Kotla’s non-smoking bar, lamenting what possibly is the slow death of cricket. With not even 10 days left for the domestic season to begin and less than 20 days left for the Ranji season to start, we are witnessing an unprecedented situation. The Ranji camp was hastily announced only on Saturday and it will begin on September 14, which is the coming Monday, not even three weeks before the first game. A look at the players' list shows the many compromises.

At the centre of all situation are the officials, the main culprits whose ego clashes and personal greed has left cricket on crutches. Who wouldn’t have wanted a mighty South African side to play at the Kotla in a T20 warm-up tie. Well, everyone would have wanted it except these DDCA officials, who presumably don’t have enough money to host the match where they know there wouldn’t be any returns.

Friday, incidentally, was the 75^th day when the two appointed judges, Babu Lal and GP Thareja sat at the DDCA overseeing the sports working committee elections. Yet, after all these days, they haven’t been able to complete the formalities. Yes, my friends, even the national elections last year took less time than the elections of the 111 clubs are taking. It is a tragedy of sorts and cricket is suffering.

It will be worthwhile to find out what sort of a discussion the vice-president CK Khanna had with sports secretary Sunil Dev and an official who has filed a case against him. Whether the meeting was meant to break the deadlock or not will be seen in a day or two.

The former cricketers like Bishan Bedi and Kirti Azad are sceptical. They believe that there will be some sort of a compromise that will again undermine cricket’s quality with seats being shared on the basis of some arrangement. “Some yours, some mine” could be the way forward.

The ex-cricketers met the judge and brought to light the illegal sale of 18 clubs over the last 13-14 years. Their contention is that overall 34 clubs have been sold illegally over this period, bringing a cloud over their ownership and whether they can vote. They will soon prepare the list and papers of the remaining 16 and send them to the judges. The judges will at the most put a note but probably nothing more as these clubs have been voting for quite a long time over the years.

The entire issue now comes to cricket and whether Delhi’s first-class cricket will get affected or not. As of now, it has been badly affected and skipper Gautam Gambhir has expressed his unhappiness over the issue.

As it is the judges can’t make up their mind over the election results and declare them. The issue of six disputed clubs is hampering it. While the votes of 105 were counted, the five disputed and one Mohan Meakins whose secretary is Madan Lal, the former cricketer, are the bone of contention.

Dev has said that the judges are not willing to look at papers from last year, or the court orders and following the lead.

One point is very much clear though. Dev’s aide Vinod Tihara is finding it tough to regain the authority he had especially with the current mandate. He has a marginal majority although the picture will become clear once the ballots of the remaining 5-6 clubs are opened. He can get more slots in the sports working committee or he can lose a couple. He is leading 6-4 at the moment.

The major issue and a fallout of this rivalry is that there is no cash with the DDCA. On Saturday, Hindustan Times reported that they are not holding the T20 warm-up match because of lack of money. Chetan Chauhan pointed out in the report that they have to pay 1.9 crore rupees as taxes to Municipal Corporation of Delhi and 25 lakh rupees to Land and Development Office. Including other expenses, the total cost comes to 3 crore rupees.  Since there are no returns the DDCA don’t want to bear unnecessary expenses. They have not been getting BCCI grants because they haven’t submitted the balance sheets and only a limited amount is being given to them to run cricket. Recently, they were given 4 crore rupees and they are left with just 2-2.5 crore rupees which they’ll need to pay salaries and run cricket.

Making fun of this irony former India captain Bishan Bedi tweeted, “Cash starved DDCA?Really?Then why R so many fat lumps o corruption w/in DDCA clinging on 2 office fr dear life?Crkt starved Del yes;Cash-No!.”

Cricket suffers as sports Committee elections' standoff continues

It has been over a week since the sports working committee elections took place at the Delhi and Districts Cricket Association (DDCA). And still there has been no headway. Delhi cricket’s future remains at stake, with no one to take responsibility. On September 1, the date the delayed Sports Working Committee elections were held, Vinod Tihara’s faction, backed by Sunil Dev and Sneh Bansal, won six posts in the 10-member committee. The rival faction backed by CK Khanna, Chetan Chauhan and Ravindra Manchanda won 4 posts.

However, there are five clubs, whose ownership is still in a doubt and a lot depends on them as the judges were expected to open them and give verdict. The votes from those clubs can have a massive bearing, it can either bring Khanna-Chauhan-Manchanda’s faction to six posts or it can bring them to less than four and give others more posts. So it is very crucial. However the two judges, GP Thareja and Babu Lal, seems to be delaying matters and it is not helping anyone. If they accept status quo then obviously, there’ll be a massive issue. Over the last two years, either of the two factions won full majority. So decisions could be taken without delay. But with two factions now, there is bound to be massive debates and stand-offs in case the status quo remains.

That the judges are delaying isn’t helping. One wonders whether if they are scared.

Both factions of Roop Nagar, KN Colts to vote at DDCA SWC elections

It is a funny thing, the entire DDCA drama over the sports working committee elections. The other day someone rightly pointed out the fact that few local association elections take place like --- this with all the nautanki and with the rival parties fighting over every inch.

There are two judges sitting at the Ferozeshah Kotla, sorting out the voters’ list and it is being said that they’ve refused even a cup of tea. Well, they might be doing the right thing because with tea will accompany the pakoras and we have all heard what DDCA’s pakoras do to stomach.

In many cases, the two learned judges are not even sure who will vote for whom. There are a few disputes regarding the clubs and they have been hearing that.

The judges Babu Lal and GP Thareja have, however, decided on a few issues. One issue was of the four disputed clubs --- Rani Bagh, Roop Nagar, KN Colts and Young Association. The verdict on Roop Nagar and KN Colts has been giving, keeping both parties happy --- both the rival factions have been allowed to vote which means additional voting rights.

In the case of Young Association, the original owner has not been allowed to vote whereas the other, who and whose dad were the long-time secretary, has been given voting rights. It is yet unclear who they’ll vote for in the elections, the SP Bansal-backed faction or the CK Khanna-Sunil Dev backed faction.

Meanwhile the fight over Rani Bagh is out in the open and the judges will soon have to decide over it.

Interestingly, the case regarding the Youngster cricket club has been heard. The judges will give their judgement most probably on Monday. It has been learnt that there was huge drama and while the late Devendra Chaudhry’s family has all the papers with them, Mr Sunil Dev has stated that he was given charge of the club. It looks likely that Devendra Chaudhry’s family will most likely vote. More on that issue later when the verdict comes. That is it for now. 

Clubs to get subsidies finally

Dharna and hunger strike seem to have become part and parcel of Delhi and District Cricket Association (DDCA) these days. The sports working committee’s another threat of an agitation came a cropper as nothing happened on Tuesday. They had threatened a dharna earlier at Jantar Mantar too. But it seems these threats are meant only to ensure things go on track. Or are they expecting to earn some brownie points.

Anyway, some really good news came out of the DDCA. The clubs will finally get the subsidies. On Monday, the DDCA treasurer Mr Ravindra Manchanda, back from London, had feared the election officers would disallow the payment of subsidies.

However, it didn’t happen. The officers said this won’t affect the election process and that the subsidy could be released. “I don’t know if the election officer will allow the payment,” Mr Manchanda had told Delhi Cricket the other day. His fears were unfound.

The BCCI had paid 1.5 crore rupees upon the request of Mr CK Khanna to ensure that the clubs got their subsidies which haven’t been paid for the last three years.

It should also be noted that payment is also to be made to the judges. The two judges are to be paid 5 lakh rupees each. 

DDCA's irregularities touched by the media

For those of you unaware of this and not having had the time to read the papers, there was an interesting article on the conflict of interest in one of the national dailies, The Indian Express, last weekend.

The article, written by contributing editor Surjit Bhalla, talked about conflict of interest and how ministers involved in the running of the game of cricket vehemently opposed BCCI coming under Right to Information Act. It also said that the Prevention of Sporting Fraud Bill was announced by the Congress within three days of the IPL scandal of 2013. However, shockingly, the BCCI and IPL were kept out of it. We’ll reserve discussion on it for later period. What we’ll talk about is how the article made references copiously to the association we all love and hate in equal measure, the DDCA.

In 2007, BCCI’s NGO status was cancelled by the Union government. Before that, it was not taxed as it was supposed to be producing something for ‘public good’, a key requirement for an NGO.

It is here the article exposes the ills within the workings of the DDCA.

It says, “While it is difficult to obtain balance sheet data for the BCCI prior to 2007, the balance sheet data of one of its premier constituents, the DDCA, are available for two years, 1997-98 and 1999-2000. In Schedule I to R, it is reported that coaching expenses of the DDCA (the public good item) in 1997-98 were zilch (yes, zero) and in 1998-99, such expenses were Rs 20,727. Total DDCA income for the two years was Rs 88 lakh and Rs 200 lakh respectively. So, clearly not a lot was spent on coaching and maybe that is why the Delhi teams cannot win anything!”

It adds, “But one line item in the expenses sheet makes for extraordinary reading. The DDCA is a club, and as such, it serves liquor to its members and their guests. The income from “sale of empty bottles” (presumably liquor) was Rs 22,372 and Rs 24,406 in the two years. In other words, the DDCA received more income from the sale of empty liquor bottles than it spent on coaching.”

This is in the good old days, when probably coaches and coaching weren’t needed that much.  You may argue that DDCA is obviously a club and if people enjoy a drink, then what’s the harm. Also, you may say that at least they showed the sale of empty bottles as income.

However, what you’ll read further will shake you and make you wonder how inefficient DDCA has been:

“In 2010-11, the DDCA spent Rs 3.8 crore on renovation and beautification of toilets at the FSK (Ferozeshah Kotla) constructed just three years earlier, in 2007-08. The MSM (Mainstream media) did not find this newsworthy. Nor has it found it newsworthy to report that Lalit Modi spent Rs 20 crore in the renovation of the Sawai Mansingh stadium in Jaipur during 2005-08. The world can see the difference — the DDCA spending Rs 150 crore to “renovate” Kotla and what just Rs 20 crore can buy in Jaipur. Oh yes, not only has the DDCA spent money inefficiently, but it has also been illegally occupying the stadium ground for the last 12 years (the lease expired in 2002) — and has been allowed to do so primarily by the UPA, and now by the BJP.”

A couple of years back, Hindustan Times carried a report on how the DDCA is occupying the stadium without having paid the lease amount, making their occupation illegal. Well, till date no action has been taken. 

CK Khanna secures bailout for DDCA clubs from BCCI

In what is a major relief for the clubs playing in the Delhi and District Cricket Association (DDCA) league this year, the BCCI has sanctioned 1.5 crore rupees for the subsidies to the clubs who have gone without any money this year.

The BCCI treasurer Anirudh Chaudhry, in a letter addressed to the BCCI and DDCA vice-president, Mr CK Khanna has promised to sanction the money to help the affected clubs. The letter says that the payment is made following a request by Mr Khanna.

The letter dated July 2 states, “Pursuant to your request, the Honorary Secretary has accorded approval to the grant of Rs. 1.5 crore advance against the amount due to DDCA keeping in view the fact that amount needs to be paid to the affiliated clubs (subsidy) for cricketing activities and other government payments.”  

The honorary secretary of the BCCI is Mr Anurag Thakur.  A copy of the letter is placed at the end of this article.

Over the past few days the issue was raked up at the DDCA and the clubs, that groom the upcoming players, had made their displeasure known as they struggled to meet expenses.

By now it has become common knowledge that the DDCA is really short of funds and there is a question mark over the conduct of elections and how they’ll be able to hold sports working committee elections. The BCCI has held back 10 crore rupees from the DDCA, as the state body has failed to submit a proper balance sheet. On top of that, an amount of close to 7 crore rupees is lying in a Central Bank account and it couldn’t be taken out as Mr Tihara’s close confidant Mr Sunil Dev had put the spanner in the works, terming the account illegal as according to him vice-president Mr Chetan Chauhan hadn’t sought his permission for shifting the DDCA money into this account.

Mr Dev says that the transfer from the regular account was illegal. However, Mr Chauhan, who has told people that he’d rather shoot himself dead than even think of doing anything illegal, says that the transfer of money was done because Mr Bansal had created plenty of accounts and the chequebooks of those had been missing. Mr Bansal had been accused of moving the money without the knowledge of directors for which he was removed last December. Mr Bansal, Mr Tihara and Mr Dev share a close rapport these days and form a faction whereas Mr Manchanda, Mr Khanna and Mr Chauhan form the other group.

In a way, Mr Chauhan did the right thing by moving the money into another account to make it and the chequebook safe. However, he blundered on the fact that he didn’t seek the signature of Mr Dev, who was one of the four signatories, and belonged to the rival camp. The bank didn’t release the funds after Mr Dev complained and asked DDCA else to replace Mr Dev as signatory.  The DDCA has since then done exactly that. But it seems the release of the funds is taking time. 

Hibernating cheques surprise election officer!

For the past few days, Ferozeshah Kotla has been witnessing frenetic activity with the two warring factions thrashing out details for the sports working committee elections that are to be held by early August. Retired judges GP Thareja and Babu Lal, it seems, are being as adamant and as matter-of-fact as they can. On the first day of discussions, there was lot of agitation and Thareja put his foot down, admonishing many senior officials.

The issue here is the sports working committee’s battle with the executive committee and a sports committee backed by them. The first step has already been taken --- a list of the 111 clubs is being put up on the board with their secretaries and/or voters mentioned on it.

The trick question comes now --- will all of these 111 clubs get to vote for a sports working committee?

The answer my dear readers is --- it could be no.

As many as six clubs are under dispute. While Ravi Brothers and Paragon Cricket Club are among the disputed from the opposition camp, KN Colts, Roop Nagar, Rani Bagh and Young association are those from the ruling Sports Working Committee faction. All but Paragon have court cases pending due to the dispute in the ownership.

When the issue arrives as to who will vote, then sparks could fly.

The other day Mr Rajeev Malhotra, the owner of the Paragon spoke about the issue with his club. Malhotra was pretty upset that despite his club not being among those under dispute, he, along with Ravi Brothers, didn’t get any matches this season.

“I can’t say about others, but my dispute looks to be a case of sports committee’s dadagiri. There is no dispute about the ownership about my club and I have all the papers to prove that everything is in order,” says Mr Malhotra.

“We were promised that we’ll get matches after January 14, 2015 but we were not given any game.”

It is surprising that Mr Malhotra’s travails began since 2013 when he had decided to end the long loyalty with the senior officials of the current sports committee. His separation from Mr Vinod Tihara helped him get into a ruling faction for one year, before Mr Tihara’s committee was back and his club ostracised.

“Last year I lost. I had campaigned against Mr Tihara, so obviously I never expected him to look at me favourably. But I don’t understand why my club is being penalised and not allowed to play,” says Mr Malhotra.

The sports working committee says that there are issues about the ownership and secretary-ship of the club. It should be noted that Mr Malhotra’s brother Mr Sanjeev Malhotra had been a previous secretary of the club.  

Anyway, the interesting thing that happened is yet to come and will shock all of you. As the rule goes, a private club is supposed to pay 750 rupees as annual subscription fees whereas an institutional club is supposed to pay 5000 rupees.

While many of the clubs had paid the subscription fees through cheques, it has been learnt that the sports committee failed to encash those cheques. As a result of it, most of the cheques lapsed. Both Paragon and Ravi Brothers weren’t given the chance to pay subscription and hence were away from the league. With the change in DDCA management in a December 9, 2014 meeting, when Mr Sneh Bansal was removed and Mr Chetan Chauhan took charge (as part of the KCM --- Khanna-Chauhan-Manchanda faction), Paragon’s Mr Malhotra and  Ravi Brothers’ Mr Ashok Sharma ensured that their clubs paid their subscription with the party at the top looking at them favourably. They deposited the cheques and got them cleared. So, in a way, the money from only these two clubs was cleared at that stage whereas the others were officially out.

As the news goes now, so far only 30-35 clubs’ cheques have been cleared with the receipts.

In fact, to the shock of everyone, one of the judges appointed as the election officer raised the issue with Mr Tihara, the convenor of the sports committee. He asked as to why the cheques have become invalid and lapsed. The judge has issued an order asking for fresh cheques from clubs which should be cleared by July 20.  

Sports Working Committee elections to be held in six weeks' time

By the way did any of you, dear readers, notice something unusual. The whatsapp messages, poking fun at others, didn’t come on Tuesday. REALLY?! We were shocked not to see it too. After all, there were all sorts of messages coming our way all these days. Stuff that showed the bankruptcy of minds and souls in the Delhi and District Cricket Association (DDCA).

So what was the reason? It has been learnt that the Tees Hazari Courts, where the sports committee election date case was being heard, ticked off the officials and mentioned clearly in its order that such things have to be stopped. Well done, Court. While the nicknames and the funny bits made you laugh and gave you juicy bits to relish, they also made one wonder if people sitting at the home of Delhi cricket are really mature. Hope they do mature, now that the honourable court has intervened. 

Anyway the news is that the sports working committee elections will be held within six weeks and a couple of new election officers, GP Thareja and Babu Lal, two retired additional sessions judges, will oversee the elections. This is after justice KS Mohi was removed on Monday. But the point is the elections can’t be delayed now.

This verdict sent a wave of cheers in the KCM (Khanna- Chauhan-Manchanda) camp. Whereas the BTD (Bansal-Tihara-Dev) group was subdued. They didn’t straightway fire mails and whatsapp messages like they had the other day.  

In fact, it was the Delhi Cricket Council, which is backing the KCM group that served out a volley sending out a message which said that it was a tight slap on their face and their tactics of delaying the elections (and thereby keeping the whole affair in a limbo) has failed. So in brass tacks, the elections will be held by early August which is a relief for everyone. You don’t want to be like some university elections, which sometimes happen and sometimes don’t.

Now the whole issue boils down to how many clubs will support the current sports working committee convenor Mr Vinod Tihara and how many the other group. Mr Tihara had recently claimed that he has the support of 87 clubs, which practically means he has full support of everyone except clubs of those officials that are against him. Now this is a massive claim. It means that either he’ll win hands down or otherwise he’ll go back embarrassed. So let’s wait and watch.

Election officer KS Mohi removed

In a way, Monday’s verdict from the Tees Hazari Courts didn’t come as shock to most of the people. Many people at the Delhi and District Cricket Association (DDCA) had already known what would happen. And expectedly, Justice KS Mohi, the man appointed to conduct the elections was removed and in place a new election officer is to be appointed.

The two factions Messrs CK Khanna-Chetan Chauhan-Ravindra Manchanda and  Messrs Sneh Bansal-Vinod Tihara-Sunil Dev won one round each or let us put it this way, scored a goal each to end Monday, the June 29, to end the day’s play as a draw.

For convenience sake I’ll abbreviate the factions. I am sure you guys too would appreciate the abbreviated versions. If not and you happen to be a devotee of any of these, then you can expand the abbreviations while reading it.

While the BTD (Bansal-Tihara-Dev) faction managed to get Justice Mohi removed as election officer, the KCM (Khanna-Chauhan-Manchanda) group managed to get the case shifted to another judge for today’s hearing (i.e Tuesday, June 30). The KCM group thinks that the issue is of election date which needs to be set before August 4, preferably by July 31.

Mr Khanna had said a week back that he is ready for a change in the election officer. “You see that is not the issue with us. We don’t mind changing the election officer,” he had said last week. “The only thing is that we want the elections to be held on time.”

Mr Chauhan too has been of the same view. “We have, however, managed to shift the case to the other court. Our primary interest is to have elections on time.”

Whether the case shifts or stays at the same court and with the same judge remains to be seen.

The release from the BTD faction, meanwhile, celebrated KS Mohi’s removal. It stated, “In a big setback to Sh CK Khanna the BCCI & DDCA Vice President, a Delhi Court today rejected his controversial appointee Sh KS Mohi, retired judge as the Election Officer for the forthcoming SWC Elections of the DDCA.”

Stay tuned for more drama. 

No coloured clothing, play in whites boys!

So, all the major private hot weather tournaments in the national Capital are over. The Lala Raghubirs, the GG Dutts and Om Nath Soods are done and dusted for this year. And here comes the big one --- the DDCA Hot Weather tournament. It is going to be inaugurated on Sunday morning, June 28, at 7.30 am. So those of you interested in having a look, can drop in. There are going to be fireworks and we’ll tell you why.

The tournament, which is the centrepiece of all cricket in Delhi and in a way marks the culmination of the long league season, wouldn’t have had it as bad as this, ever since the BCCI money started flowing into DDCA coffers.

It has been wrought into a bad shape by the continuing squabbling and factionalism (There, there... and I am getting started on it all over again. But you probably know by now the stuff going in the DDCA, the warring parties, the frozen account and that un-submitted balance sheet).

On Friday, news emerged from the headquarters that this time the Hot Weather will be played in white clothes and with a red cherry, the way cricket traditionally has always been played. Over the years, the BCCI money had brought in coloured clothing, white ball and a day-night final under lights at the Ferozeshah Kotla.

For many old-timers, it was a cheap gimmick. The white clothing was anyway smarter, more handsome than the ill-matching coloured clothing. You’d have all those 50-odd teams getting some limited number of coloured clothing and the players would turn up like some circus characters. There’d be pyjamas of one bright colour and jersey of another bright colour and you’d feel if they have walked out straight out of their bed or are gearing up as extras for a dance sequence of a Devang Patel song.

But then one-day international and national level cricket is played with a white ball and in coloured clothing and that’s the way the system has to groom the young ones for the future. And hence the decision to splurge money on clothes, floodlights and of course, since the teams are too many and there being not enough colour combinations, those odd colour combinations.

Friday’s message from the DDCA, released by the joint convenor, tournament organising committee, Mr Vijay Bahadur Mishra, stated, “This is to inform all the participating clubs in the DDCA Hot Weather cricket tournament that matches will be played with red ball and white dress.”

The reason of course is attributed to a lack of funds. We know the DDCA is facing cash crunch due to its own follies. There is so much money around to be had and used, but it is just a clash of egos that is stalling the process.

Would Mr Dev let the account get de-frozen? No, because probably his Sar jhuk jayega. Would Mr Tihara, who is crying hoarse over the state of local cricket, press his close friend and ally Mr Dev to de-freeze the account so that close to 7 crore rupees are released. Or would he continue with these rants despite knowing everything? Or would Mr CK Khanna, firmly ensconced over the sorry affairs, fund the clothes and white balls from his pocket? After all he is the BCCI vice-president too and can use his good offices. Or will Mr Sneh Bansal, who has been accused of ‘round-tripping’ of 1.55 crore rupees and whose acts, as per Mr Kirti Azad, are part of reason why the balance sheet hasn’t been submitted, step in or will he just hang onto his throne.

These are questions that deserve some solid and quick answers. On Friday, a piece of news emerged that a match has been played at the Ferozeshah Kotla with torn sightscreen.

Hell, now we don’t even have a proper sightscreen. Or someone’s playing tricks. Or someone’s bluffing and creating panic situation. DDCA itni phateechar ho gayee hai kya?

Anyway the good news is that Hot Weather will happen although in circumstances not conducive to train ODI cricketers. We are not even sure if the white clothing will be provided by the DDCA Sports Working Committee. They have hinted at uncertainty over this.

So don’t be surprised if the players turn out in some old whites. By the way, some of the old-timers or aesthetically sensitive people wouldn’t mind that. 

A day of demands: Tihara's plea, Azad's letter and protest by Paragon, Ravi Brothers

As expected, the current Sports Working Committee met on Wednesday evening and its convenor Mr Vinod Tihara apparently wrote a three-page letter which he has planned to send to the BCCI bosses. To cut the long story short, the letter addressed to Anurag Thakur, the BCCI secretary, says that all officials in Delhi and District Cricket Association (DDCA) are corrupt and the 33 crore rupees given to it have gone waste.

It requests the board to divert the money to the Sports Working Committee so that it could run cricketing activities and does not have to ask directors of the DDCA every time for monetary sanctions.

Whether the Indian board looks at it positively or not is yet to be seen but such a move, although quite nice as people running cricket will directly get money, could also set a dangerous precedent where every association’s cricket wing may demand similar privileges, not be answerable to top bosses and may also branch off if headstrong, wilful and obstinate people happen to run those wings. It is a very delicate issue and Mr Thakur and his colleagues at the board headquarters will have to carefully look at it.

There is no doubt that BCCI’s money going to DDCA has remained unaccounted for and has also gone waste over the years. In the words of former Delhi cricketer Aakash Lal, “this (Ferozeshah Kotla) is the worst cricket ground in the country”. Who is to blame is something everyone knows but no one wants to say. The rot, they say, starts from the top.

On Wednesday, Mr Kirti Azad, the former India cricketer who is fighting a battle against corruption, sent out a letter to media which he has addressed to the finance minister Mr Arun Jaitley. The first point he makes points out why the BCCI is not releasing the money to the DDCA so that it could pay out the dues. His letter states:

“Balance Sheet for 2013-14 cannot be properly prepared since it contains all kinds of fake bills and round tripping of Rs 1.55 crores by S P Bansal and Anil Khanna in cahoots with Pankaj Bhardwaj, C K Bhardwaj, Pritam Panwar, and Chaurasia. Without the duly audited Balance Sheet, BCCI will not give DDCA any subvention money.”

This, my dear friends, says a lot. BCCI is yet to give DDCA an outstanding sum 10 crore rupees for last year, according to Mr Ravindra Manchanda, the treasurer. It is primarily because the balance sheet hasn’t been provided.

Then you have 7 crore rupees lying frozen with the Central Bank due to internal squabbling. So how will things work out? Only you, Delhi’s dear cricket lovers can suggest some solid solution.  

Cut to the Wednesday’s happenings at the DDCA. While the Sports Working Committee met, there was a small protest at the premises where members of two clubs, the Paragon Club and Ravi Brothers staged a protest against the committee. Their complaint was that they were not being allowed to play in the league. There were players from the club present. More about that later.

In another piece of news, the Delhi Cricket Council has written a letter to the authorities demanding the sports committee elections be held before July 31 as it will give the new committee time to take over when the term of the current one expires.