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.