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!.”