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.

From best friend to enemy No 1: Tihara vs CK Khanna

Things keep getting worse at the Delhi and District Cricket Association (DDCA) and it seems relationships don’t last long and can change in a short period. Tuesday saw another piece of drama. A letter written by sports working committee convenor Mr Vinod Tihara attacks association and BCCI vice-president Mr CK Khanna and promises to save the DDCA employees from him.

Mr Tihara wrote in his letter that the Mr Khanna has been ruling DDCA for the last 33 years and has been manipulating and resorting to illegal means and acts to get himself elected.

Mr Tihara further mentions, “I have initiated the beginning of the end of the rule of CK Khanna and would not rest till he is taken to Tihar Jail with full band baaza”.

It is surprising how Mr Tihara has suddenly got inimical to Mr Khanna. Till last year he was his best friend. In fact, when former cricketer Mr Kirti Azad raised the issue during one of the elections, he pointed out the nexus between Mr Tihara and Mr Khanna. In fact, it is common knowledge at DDCA Mr Khanna has helped Mr Tihara win elections over a number of years. For those frequenting the DDCA, Mr Tihara was often seen in his room.

So how come the two have fallen out and Mr Tihara become the “Jaani Dushman’ of Mr Khanna. From “Ye dosti hum nahi chhodenge”, the song has become “Main tera dushman, dushman too mera...”.

The crux of the issue my friends are the forthcoming sports working committee elections as you must have known while reading this blog. Mr Tihara has become the key enemy of Mr Khanna as it is known that the latter is not backing him this time.

To give you an idea of the timeline of the events that has led to this enmity:

On June 13 a resolution was passed to set the procedure for elections in motion. DDCA director Mr Ajay Sharma proposed it whereas Mr Ashok Sharma, another director seconded it.

On June 17, a meeting was called where former test cricketer Mr Chetan Chauhan, Mr CK Khanna and DDCA treasurer Mr Ravindra Manchanda were present. Mr Sunil Dev, the fourth key person, although asked to come didn’t attend the meeting. Mr Dev is a key ally of Mr Tihara. At the meeting, it was decided that KS Mohi, a retired judge would be appointed the election officer.

On June 18, a letter was despatched to Mr Mohi and he showed his receiving on the very same day.

On June 19, Mr Tihara approached the Tees Hazari Courts contesting that the resolutions are all illegal as the directors’ term had already expired on November 30, 2014.

On June 22, the court asked to seal the register where it was mentioned that Mr Mohi would be the election officer and proposals for elections were set up. Mr Tihara had claimed that the appointments were done on back-date, that is after he had filed a case on June 19.

However, Mr Ashok Sharma has claimed that the case filed on June 19 already has the contentious papers. “If the appointment paper and the election resolution is already there with the June 19 case, how is it possible that changes could be made on back-date. They are bluffing and fooling everyone. They just want to hang this around for the next year or year and a half and stay in charge of sports committee.”

The next date of hearing is June 29. Surely sparks will fly till then. The latest being an allegation of Mr Tihara that Mr Khanna and his friends had arranged goons to beat up two members of his sports working committee – Mr Anil Mishra and Mr Padam Chauhan. Delhi Cricket will talk about it in the next post as much drama is likely to happen on Wednesday evening over these allegations. 

Court asks Sports Officer Satpal to produce sealed register on June 29

On Monday, June 22, a strange message popped out of Delhi and District Cricket Association (DDCA).

The message sent on behalf of the current sports working committee on whatsapp read, “Pappu raktchaap se peedit ho gaya hai. Uske swasthya ki jaankari laao. Pappu raktchaap se peedit ho gaye hain. Hum unke jaldi swasth hone ki prathna karte hain.” (Pappu is down with blood pressure. Get information about his health. Pappu is down with blood pressure. We pray for his well being.”

Now, Pappu here doesn’t refer to Rahul Gandhi nor to Salman Khan. It refers to Mr CK Khanna, the vice-president of the DDCA and the vice-president of BCCI.

Such insinuations, gross and sarcastic remarks are not new in the DDCA. There have been worse.

Mr Khanna was supposed to appear in the court in a case that Mr Vinod Tihara & Co, of the current sports working committee, had filed. The allegation was that Mr Khanna had put in officials for the Sports Working Committee elections on back date over a contentious resolution to hold elections. He is facing contempt of court for having tampered with the documents.

The current committee says that Mr Khanna got it done in desperation a few days back to ensure that the court doesn’t stop sports committee elections before August 4 whereas Mr Khanna says that things have been done methodically, as per the rules and systematically. He has even told Delhi Cricket that the current committee is trying to stop the elections as they know they’ll lose.

Whatever be the case, Mr Khanna couldn’t make it to the court due to blood pressure and the court has now asked Mr Satpal, the sports officer at DDCA to seal the register which has the details, and produce it before the court on June 29 when the court also hears the case of Mr Tihara’s allegations about ‘resolutions since December, 2014 being illegal’ including one that sent Mr Khanna to the BCCI. Mr Khanna has also been asked to provide details on June 29. The Khanna faction says that Mr Tihara and Mr Sunil Dev are desperate to remove Mr Khanna from the post of BCCI vice-presidency and even want Mr Jyotiraditya Scindia to replace him from Central Zone, from where he got elected.

Mr Khanna had shocked the entire cricketing fraternity after he defeated the Madhya Pradesh strongman Mr Scindia in his own backyard during the BCCI elections. The post of vice-presidency from North Zone had gone to Mr ML Nehru of the Jammu and Kashmir.

Collage, RP share Raghubir honours as rain spoils final

The final of the iconic 39^th Lala Raghubir Singh cricket tournament was spoiled by rain. The rainy season had already forced the postponement of the GG Dutt cricket tournament last week and the final was played three days later on Wednesday. However, the Raghubir final on Monday, June 22, had gotten off to a start before rain intervened. The match was reduced to 30 overs and Collage Sports Club, which was put into bat by RP Academy, scored 155 in the allotted 30 overs.

Pramod Chandela hammered 72 to push Collage beyond 150. On a good batting surface of Modern School grounds, Barakhamba Road, the score wasn’t enough.

In reply RP got off to a flying start, getting to 34 without loss in the fifth over before heavy rains stopped the match. Both teams shared the winners’ trophy.

The two finalists got 1.5 lakh rupees each whereas the semifinalists Madras Club and Telefunken Club got 51,000 rupees each.

Scores: Collage Sports Club 155 all out in 30 overs (Pramod Chandela 72 (53 balls, 6 fours and five sixes), Arun Chaprana 28, Sunil Dalal 2/14, Rohit Dubey 2/29, Ketan Pawar 2/30)

RP Academy 34/0 in 4.4 overs (Milind Tandon 20 not out)

INDIVIDUAL AWARDS

Best batsman: Aakash Antil (RP Academy)

Best bowler: Ketan Pawar (RP Academy)

Man of the tournament: Priyank Tehlan (Telefunken Club) 

Shahbaz Nadeem (left) and Puneet Bisht share the
Raghubir cricket trophy as tournament joint secretary
DP Singh, DDCA's ousted president Sneh Bansal and
ex-Test cricketer Yashpal Sharma applaud.

Battle moves to social media, but should SWC elections be delayed

There is a war brewing at the Delhi and District Cricket Association (DDCA). The two warring parties are the Mr Vinod Tihara-Sunil Dev-Sneh Bansal trio against the Delhi Cricket Council, who has Mr CK Khanna, Mr Chetan Chauhan and Mr Ravindra Manchanda by their side. Just think over it. The clubs have not received subsidies, umpires haven’t been paid despite an amount of close to 7 crore is lying in a bank account that has been frozen due to the internal politics after a signatory, Mr Dev, refused to sign. An amount of 10 crore rupees is still with the BCCI as the DDCA hasn’t managed to prepare a balance sheet and submit to the apex body.

The DDCA is on the verge of crisis once again. And it has become a laughing stock again. The war has now extended to social media whatsapp with both parties inundating their followers with messages.

The Tihara group’s lawyer sent out a message saying, “The parental organization is always powerful and will remain so. It delight it's power to make it more functional. It's democratic and followed in progressive society globally. But conflict of interest always lead to bad blood as in the case of DDCA Executive Committee and democratically elected SWC. It has tried it's best, to fulfil it's electoral promises without much required support from The DDCA's Executive Committee. And after exhausting all possible channels, it's Convener was forced to write a letter dated 16 June 2015 to the Hony. Gen. Sect. DDCA and forwarded it's copies to all concerned with BCCI, officials of DDCA, Secretaries of all affiliated clubs of DDCA.”

Then Vinod Tihara sent out a message saying, “If the DDCA Executive Committee cannot release funds for Annual Cricket League, Club subsidies to its Affiliated Clubs pending since last 3 years, I on behalf of the SWC demand that EC members public ally feel sorry about it and tender apology and resign or else the SWC will not allow them to function. Even otherwise 18 Executive Directors are illegally holding on to their office despite their term being over on 30.09.14. I have ensure through the court case Vinod Tihara Vs DDCA that the "fraud" is exposed before the world.”

The Delhi Cricket Council sent its message on whatsapp, “We agree you are fighting with your funds looted by you this year and for the last 10 years. By siding with Bansal and Sunil Dev you have shown that you also belong to that corrupt group .You are right 87 secry's are dead against you and don't even want to see your dirty face in Ddca. The mere mention of SWC (Sports Working Committee) elections through a resolution by the executive committee sent shivers through your body and you ran towards your equally corrupt lawyer to stall the elections. But you were surprised when you came to know that the elections would be held on time. All your dirty efforts went in vain and you have nothing left in you. You are a spent force who have done nothing for clubs and secry's. The previous committee did so many good things that it's difficult to describe it in words. Never in the history of Ddca has any committee done such good work for the benefit of clubs. You be busy with bansal and court cases, this suits you. Your lawyer is a happy man-More to come -don't run away-kehte hain Picture abhi baki hai.”

In this battle, the patience of the people concerned with cricket is running thin. On June 19, the court had said, “this court deems it appropriate that the ‘resolution by circulation dated 13.06.15” be not acted upon till next date of hearing. It is clarified that the DDCA shall not fix any date for holding of elections of SWC till next date of hearing”.

The next date of hearing is June 29 and the Delhi Cricket Council is confident that the court’s decision will not stall the elections. Mr CK Khanna had already told delhicricketnews.blogspot.com that this is a desperate measure to delay the inevitable. Mr Tihara has alleged in his note to court that his opponents got a backdated letter mentioning the appointment of election officers.

Mr Tihara has also said that he has the support of majority of the clubs and they are with him.

Let us analyse the entire matter from the point of view of a cricket lover. Why shouldn’t there be an election? Why should it be stalled now? Shall we carry on with the status quo and witness Delhi’s cricket in the courtroom?

Or should there be a proactive measure where parties should sit and talk and deliberate over the matter.

Everyone knows that corruption runs deep in DDCA and the internal bickering are hurting the game and its connoisseurs.

It won’t be wrong to say that the latest case is another way of hurting the cricket, knowingly or unknowingly, rightly or wrongly.

In one of the responses to an earlier report that delhicricketnews.blogspot.com got from the Mr Tihara’s lawyer, Mr Gautam Dutta, it was mentioned that the elections can’t be held in July as was reported by us. Now Mr Tihara’s contention in the court case filed by him is that the elections shouldn’t be held before August 4, 2015, the date the present committee’s term expires and it completes its tenure.

However, the Delhi Cricket Council points out that for any election, it has to take place before the term expires so that the new body can take over immediately after the day the previous term ends. It makes sense.

In any and every election, including the national general elections, such a thing happens. The elections are held and while the results are declared, the outgoing official/body or even Prime Minister serves till the time the new one takes over. So this premise that the elections can be held only after the tenure ends seems flawed and can hurt cricket even further.

What decision the court takes on June 29 remains to be seen. However, it will be interesting to see whether Delhi’s cricket remains hung in suspended animation or the elections are held early to decide the future course of action.