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 |
No comments:
Post a Comment