The fight between the various factions of the Delhi and
District Cricket Association (DDCA) is out in the open. On Tuesday morning,
Vinod Tihara dispatched a letter to general secretary Anil Khanna threatening
that he would create a rival faction to run cricketing activities called ‘DDCA Affiliated
Clubs and Delhi’s Cricket sympathisers’.
The aim of the body will be to collect funds from the sympathisers
and cricket clubs to pay club subsidies, ground fees and other expenses needed
to run cricket in the Capital. Laying the blame squarely on DDCA and BCCI vice-president
CK Khanna, Tihara’s letter says the DDCA has failed to give account of the 33 crore
rupees it received from the BCCI for the year.
The letter also adds that such a thing wasn’t possible
during the period when SP Bansal would travel to BCCI meetings instead of CK
Khanna. Tihara has stated six things the expected rebel committee will do ---
to run league matches, provide kits, clothing (especially to institutional
clubs), subsidies to clubs and organise annual function.
However, while the letter lays the blame squarely on CK Khanna,
some officials say that it misses out one clear point --- DDCA’s 7 crore rupees
are lying frozen in the Central Bank account and that is primarily due to the
objection placed by sports secretary, Sunil Dev, a close confidant of Tihara
these days. Dev ensured that the money couldn’t be withdrawn as the DDCA executive
committee failed to obtain the signature of Dev, who was one of the
signatories. Dev was later removed from the list of signatories for his refusal
as DDCA executive committee decided to go ahead in its bid to defreeze the
account by appointing another signatory to replace Dev.
In a recent letter to vice-president Chetan Chauhan,
former cricketer Kirti Azad hit out at Tihara saying that while the sports
committee convenor is criticising DDCA for not releasing money to run the league
and cricket, he has been quietly backing Sunil Dev in his bid to ensure that
the money is not released and the account not defreezed by Central Bank.
Meanwhile, not even three hours had passed after Tihara
had released the letter addressed to Anil Khanna, Azad shot out a letter to
Chetan Chauhan laying out travelling expenses of Sneh Bansal and close
associate Ravi Jain, a joint secretary in DDCA. Bansal, it appears, has the
backing of Tihara these days and that is clear from the various letters flying
around. He said that DDCA was sleeping and only he pointed the ‘round tripping’
of 1.55 crore rupees by Bansal. He also said that it was only he who pointed
out the fact that Bansal had taken airfare of one trip from both DDCA and BCCI.
It was Azad’s disclosure that led Bansal to eventually return the money charged
to DDCA.
He sent out attachments which list the amount spent by
Ravi Jain from DDCA’s exchequers for travel.
According to the attachment Ravi Jain spent 2,56,859 in
2011-12 (including 1,50,000 on TA/DA at the rate of 10,000 rupees per day),
1,12,239 in 2012-13 (including 30,000 on TA/DA at the rate of 10,000 rupees per
day) and 1,32,985 in 2013-14.
However, a section of the DDCA says that he was
authorised to claim and spend as he was either attending a BCCI meeting or
attending an IPL workshop on behalf of the Delhi association.
But Azad points out in his letter to Chetan Chauhan, “please
check about similar escapades by the DDCA Media manager, Ravi Jain, who travels
to BCCI meetings, often uninvited and stays there for 4 days at a stretch, for
a one session meeting. Please take steps to recover all this wasted money from
him directly. Rs 10000/ per diem DA should also be recovered from him, since he
has no business to be there in BCCI meeting in the first place.”
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