Captain Gambhir dictates terms, has his own set of players

With the weather clement, a lot more people turned out at the Ferozeshah Kotla on Wednesday than had dropped in at any day last week. There was an added attraction too --- the Ranji Trophy  squad had been announced. There were happy faces, sad faces, surprised faces and angry faces. To give details of everyone’s reaction would take a lot of time but you could see all sorts of reactions. The only man who probably would have walked home happy and laughing was the team captain Gautam Gambhir. These days he is behaving like he owns the Ranji team, some say he is almost like a dictator. And the choice of the squad shows that he was probably the only one who spoke in selection matters. Of course, successful stint with the Kolkata Knight Riders has helped him get that chip on the shoulder. And no doubt he has been treated unfairly in a way at the national level. But then this is life and this is cricket. It brings the best down to earth.

With Virender Sehwag and Mithun Manhas out of the team and moving to Haryana and Jammu and Kashmir, there was always talk that Gambhir, Unmukt Chand and Rajat Bhatia will play a key role. But the door on Bhatia was shut. There are different reasons being attributed to it.

Tapeshwar Tyagi, who was the manager with the one-day team in Dharamsala last season, says that one wouldn’t stand in slip position, the other wouldn’t move from slip. Virender Sehwag didn’t field anywhere else except slips while Bhatia wouldn’t field in the slip at all. This made Gambhir angry. Some also talk of the fact that Bhatia never moved up the batting order despite being asked to take responsibility. He was enjoying the game in the lower order, scoring plenty of runs off the old ball when the opposition had lost bite. The youngsters would be pushed up and sacrificed.

In a confrontation in Dharamsala, Gambhir had blasted both Sehwag and Bhatia. We know what the media will carry --- all goodie stuff that Gambhir never had any issues with Bhatia and that he was his friend and that team comes first. And that the two have played almost the same number of matches for KKR. But all that is poppycock. Gambhir had serious issues with Bhatia, his one-time favourite at the KKR. And there could be genuine reasons for this dislike as well.

In fact last season, when Chetan Chauhan had floated the idea of having Bhatia as the skipper, Gambhir was pretty livid. This was during the season. Chauhan saab, in his love for Bhatia, had once irked former Delhi skipper Shikhar Dhawan too by pushing Bhatia in the hot seat.

Delhi began well last season, then struggled in away games. They lost their quarterfinal to a very weak Mumbai, who probably fielded their worst-ever side.

If Gambhir thinks that Delhi players are too old, he has some valid reason. He has probably rightly brought in youngsters. But are they capable and what about the ageing bowling line-up? Is he and the selectors trying to suggest that there are no bowlers in Delhi other than Pawan Suyal, Sumit Narwal and Pradeep Sangwan. These are bowlers going over the hill and still the selectors have kept faith in them. And no, they are not incisive. The only youngster who has been brought in is Sarang Rawat and that boy failed BCCI’s age test a couple of seasons back. Parvinder Awana is the only one who looks the part. Add some of Narwal’s grit. But that is all.

Let us now look at the team....

Batting: Vaibhav Rawal, Milind Kumar, Nitish Rana, Yogesh Nagar and Dhruv Shorey make the young line-up that’ll help Gambhir and Unmukt.
Rawal played one Ranji match last year and scored 11. He has been considered very promising but he has not had any decent score since he made his debut. And he is too slow.
Nitish Rana is one quality lad. He plays for LB Shastri Club and sources people him so much so that one said that Sehwag asked him to come over to Haryana. Don’t know whether its true. But the lad seems to have a lot of promise.
Yogesh Nagar has been on and off. He didn’t play any Ranji match last year. Played three one-dayers and scored a total of 41 at the average of 13.67. In T20s he made 95 in four matches at 23.33. But over the years he hasn’t done anything to merit place in Delhi team now. Nagar’s action was found suspect and he was told not to bowl.
Dhruv Shorey had played two U-23 matches last year and averaged 16.33. There is no place for Mohit Sharma, who had shown his mettle. The selectors said they discussed him for a long, long time though. Jaideep Chauhan, whose dad Padam lobbied very hard, didn’t make it either though he impressed with a century against Mumbai last season for Delhi U-23. Normally if you hit a ton against Delhi’s arch-rivals Mumbai in age group cricket, you are considered a talent for the top.

Pace bowling: Sumit Narwal, Pradeep Sangwan, Pawan Suyal, Parvinder Awana and Sarang Rawat.
Narwal is 33 and Gambhir likes the fact that he can bat a bit too. But what’s the point when he has to do a batsman’s job. He does pick wickets but often when opposition scores a lot.
Pradeep Sangwan, even though officially is 24 looks like a 32 year old injury-hit medium pacer, who trundles in to deliver the ball without being able to even bend for a little extra effort. He was banned by the BCCI for a year for having tested positive. He took five wickets in three innings last year and a couple of them were tailenders. But he says he has worked on fitness. So let’s see.
Pawan Suyal has played just three Ranji matches over the last two years. He hasn’t got a wicket and has given away plenty of runs.
Sarang Rawat was supposed to be a player of promise. But unfortunately his career has not blossomed. A couple of years back, while playing for U-19s, he was found cheating. The DDCA hadn’t sent his age certificate, so the BCCI got his test done and he was found overage.
Spin bowling: The biggest question was over off-spinner with Manan Sharma almost a certainty as the left-arm spinner. Manan was lucky though last year with Delhi playing all their home matches at underprepared tracks at the Kotla.
And for some reason the wise men kept Manan’s competition Pawan Negi out. Negi was on Wednesday selected for the India A squad that’ll play South Africa in a warm-up game at the Palam grounds.
The selectors kept offie Shivam Sharma, a success at the IPL and a certainty in the squad, in reserves but selected Pulkit Narang, a trainee of Virat Kohli’s coach Rajkumar Sharma. There have been talks over the fact that Virat Kohli might have put in a word to the officials to take care of the kid from his coach’s West Delhi Cricket Academy. That could be true but it could also be out of thin air. Narang has picked 40-odd wickets in the DDCA league this season and for once you feel that a youngster is being given a chance on the basis of league performance which finally proves that league is at least of some value. There aren’t many young off-spinners around with Manoj Chauhan, having been tried and discarded. Mohd Bilal is another youngster whose name was doing the rounds.
Wicketkeeper: Mohit Ahlawat was the biggest surprise having not played any age group cricket. With Delhi struggling to get a decent wicketkeeper with Puneet Bisht not doing enough. His replacement was Rahul Yadav and the two were juggled last year. Neither did exceptionally well. However, Ahlawat was pluck out of nowhere. The LB Shastri kid (now don’t get surprised if I say Gambhir has a soft corner for that club), scored seven centuries and played two sterling innings. He made 180 against Sonnet and rescued his team from 102/9 to chase down 240. But this was all in DDCA league cricket. Ahlawat is from Sonepat and had failed to make the cut for Haryana even this year. But Delhi and Gambhir found him to their liking. Ideally, they should have gone for Rishabh Pant, the U-19 keeper who is among the India U-19 probables. But they somehow didn’t.

Honestly, it looks like Gambhir was the only one with a say in the selections. Ajay Jadeja didn’t say a thing. But two games into the season, things could be different if Delhi craps. It could be Gambhir in the backseat and people criticising him for backing players from LB Shastri and those of his liking. It could bring Jaddu in the picture. 

Relay fast cancelled after Tihara's attempt to bring in Dahiya pushes Jadeja to mentor's role

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

Brawl in U-19 camp, fledgling sports committee announces hunger strike

The Delhi and District Cricket Association (DDCA) had declared Monday as an off day out of respect for Jagmohan Dalmiya, the BCCI president who had passed away on Sunday night. Then there were heavy rains that lashed the city in the evening, so much so that the traffic at ITO bridge was chock-a-block and going anywhere near the Ferozeshah Kotla would have meant testing your patience. But then these days DDCA is so abuzz with activities and happenings, there is so much of unpredictability, so much at stake that even Monday had officials strolling around, picking up fights and having animated discussions.

The morning had gone off well, with the Ranji squad observing 2-minute silence in Dalmiya’s memory. Then skipper Gautam Gambhir and new coach Ajay Jadeja seemingly struck off well, despite the apparent differences. The selectors, Vinay Lamba, Rahul Sanghvi and Hari Gidwani were there. All of these guys obviously left all the differences and shenanigans to the officials.

The evening, with the Under-19 camp, however came with a rush of blood. Naresh Sharma ‘Tappu’, member of the sports working committee and an aide of Vinod Tihara, rammed into Nikhil Chopra, Sunil Valson and Suresh Luthra, the three junior selectors appointed by the executive committee. This was just a trailor of what is yet to come due to the fight between the sports committee and the executive, and it looked pretty ugly while it lasted. There were well over 100-125 kids even though the selectors had given a list of 78 kids. So many kids meant that kids from Anil Jain’s list of U-19 probables had also walked in. To give you a clear picture, Anil Jain is allied to the sports committee and Tihara. They wanted to push their kids too. The selectors somehow warded off Tappu & Co but so many kids turned it into a fish market, says Pramod Sood, a DDCA member.

Tappu says that they had just requested the selectors to keep two kids each from all clubs in addition to their 78 and give everyone a fair chance. Well, these many more kids would have certainly turned it into a bigger fish market.

And by evening, a press release from Padam Chauhan, a sports working committee member and a sidekick of Tihara, threatened a ‘relay hunger strike’ on September 23. They’ll start the strike at 8 am. Well, honestly it is a pretty lovely proposition – you stay hungry taking turns. First you, then him, then him and it goes on and on. We are pretty sure that some of them must be diabetic and they can’t stay hungry for too long. Hence the relay strike.

Anyway, the seeds of this agitation and quarrel were laid on Sunday itself in a sports committee meeting. The Tihara group had said they’d pick their own set of selectors disregarding the decision taken by the executive committee. “We’ll try to accommodate those appointed by the executive committee too,” Tihara said rather generously. “It is our right to appoint selectors and run cricket not theirs.”

These guys are sticking to their guns even if time seems to be running out. However, in what came as a shock to them, their opposition in the committee, the four guys belonging to CK Khanna-Manchanda-Chetan Chauhan group, don’t seem to be that keen on it. Even after being offered an option to suggest two names each for what could be five-member selection panels in each of the age groups, they issued a press release saying that they are firmly behind the two selection panels, senior and junior, appointed by the executive committee.

The differences may not have arisen had Tihara & Co promised to also give them a proportional representation in the support staff which they had demanded in Sunday’s meeting. Once the promise wasn’t made and the the talk was simply done in thin air, the four issued the press release announcing their decision to back the executive committee. Tihara, used to having his own way with full majority in previous years, is finding it tough now with these four members of the opposition in the panel. Hence, the decision to go on a hunger strike on Wednesday.  

The sports committee had on Sunday planned to meet today, Tuesday (22^nd September) at 11 am to take their fight further and announce their selection panel and importantly bring Vijay Dahiya as coach. Going by what looked like their struggle in the U-19 camp on Monday, they seem to have dropped their shoulders and are taking it forward in agitational style like Aam Aadmi Party. Wonder what new thing will be announced in Tuesday’s meeting and will their four opponents agree to it.

By the way, there is also a finance committee meeting today to discuss a way to re-open the Central Bank account where 6-7 crore rupees is frozen. This is to ensure that cricket is brought back into play and the South Africa Test match is held in Delhi as on schedule. 

Has Sports Working Committee outlived its utility?

So the sports working committee is going to be disbanded. You don’t believe it? Don’t. But the way Friday evening’s meeting went hinted as much. With six people belonging to Vinod Tihara-Sneh Bansal-Sunil Dev faction and four belonging to CK Khanna-Ravindra Manchanda-Chetan Chauhan group, there were bound to be differences.

First, the minority faction wanted to hold it in the bar. But it was turned down by the majority faction and then, when the meeting moved to Sunil Dev’s room, there was massive debate over the choice of convenor. At the end of it all, Tihara came out announcing that he has been made the convenor. The other four wanted a co-convenor from their faction and when this wasn’t accepted and Naresh Sharma ‘Tappu’ of Tihara faction made the co-convenor, they came out upset. The next meeting was slotted for Saturday evening and then when that didn’t materialise, it was set for 1 pm on Sunday, which is today afternoon.

Both Sneh Bansal and Sunil Dev were present in the meeting in that room and it was amazing how heavily the balance was tilted towards the Tihara faction. So an email from Ashok Katyal, a key accomplice of Tihara, was shot to the media saying Tihara is the convenor and Tappu his co-convenor. And what does the media do? Some of it ignores, the other publishes it. You can’t blame the ones who published it. These DDCA guys are masters at deceiving everyone and creating confusion.

The fact of the matter is that the other four didn’t agree and the news had not come on an official letterhead --- just a simple email. Even if it were on a letterhead and DDCA letterheads are easily available – am damn sure even to the vendor selling kulchay outside, there wouldn’t have been any guarantee of any authenticity.  We’ve seen with the three different sets of Ranji squads dispatched last week. All three came out on the letterheads.

So the issue raised in the meeting was that there is no provision for co-convenor or something like that when the four demanded their pound of flesh.  

The four fished out the original copy of the minutes of the emergent committee meeting, held in 1994, that gave birth to the sports working committee and which had all the officials fighting in that meeting. CK Khanna and Sneh Bansal were there and it was held under the chairmanship of KK Mehra. The minutes have no mention or need to have any convenor.  In the words of these guys, all 10 are equal and they can take whatever decision they want to take. Well, you know what we mean. There is always a way of bringing things to a standstill. The practice was to have a convenor and now you don’t have one because there is no provision.

This was a ticking bomb that was bound to explode someday. All this while these fellows went along with the post of convenor, primarily because there was outright majority for one faction or the other. But now that they are divided, these things will happen. And this is just the beginning. “Aagey, aagey dekhiye, hota hai kya?”

In the words of some senior officials, the judges who oversaw the SWC elections, GP Thareja and Babu Lal, are preparing a dossier that’ll embarrass the DDCA more. They may argue to stop or limit the sphere of influence of sports working committee.

The crux of all this was laid by Kirti Azad and his close aide Sameer Bahadur alongwith former India captain Bishan Singh Bedi. They had sent out a list of 18 clubs that had seen a change of ownership over the last 10-12 years. And their transfer (or illegal sale), was not recorded or approved by the executive committee. That means the owners have changed and their votes have tilted in the favour of people who have helped them buy the club.

And then you have the five clubs whose ownership is in dispute. You also have one Mohan Meakins club who has been taken over by Madan Lal but who is not allowed to vote.

So blaming the judges for taking 80-odd days is fine but what the entire process has done is highlighted the problems that the sports working committee has created for itself.

Ravindra Manchanda, the DDCA treasurer, says this (disbanding SWC) should happen anytime soon. He is hopeful that it’ll happen by next week.

In all honesty it should. Why? Because with verdict split, you’ll have lots of compromises and fights. Unless they act as good boys and promise not to fight, which is unlikely, then you allow them to continue. Else, every good thing has its period of utility. After which it should be disbanded. At least Delhi skipper Gautam Gambhir, who was appointed unanimously by all the selectors on Saturday, will have a free mind to play with. He wouldn’t have to budge under the pressure of any official.

September 25 deadline for Delhi Test match, BCCI secy Thakur needs balance sheet and Anil Jain does it again

On Thursday afternoon, Delhi and District Cricket Association’s four officials, CK Khanna, Ravindra Manchanda, Chetan Chauhan and Sunil Dev went to meet BCCI secretary Anurag Thakur at his residence. The three government nominees, Parvesh Verma, Rajan Tewari and Sunil Yadav, who had proposed a committee, were also present. On agenda was procurement of funds for the rest of the season as Delhi begin their domestic cricket.

Thakur ticked them off and asked them whether they’ll be able to host the fourth Test against South Africa. In all probability the Test will be held as the finance minister and the BCCI want it to happen at the Ferozeshah Kotla. However, the BCCI has given them September 25 as the final date to let them know if the Test will be hosted by them or not.

So, all rests on September 25 and what message DDCA sends out to them.

But what ensued in the meeting should put everyone to shame. DDCA president SP Bansal didn’t turn up even when he was called because he was probably too embarrassed to face the BCCI secretary. Bansal’s alleged round-tripping of 1.55 crore rupees is one sore point due to which the balance sheet hadn’t been signed. Last week, some directors hastily signed it. But signing the balance sheet means that the directors are approving of illegality of transaction and no one wants to take that risk. So the balance sheet hasn’t been approved and sent to BCCI and that is why the Board is withholding money.

That much Thakur made clear. Thakur added that he has already sanctioned about 6-7 crore rupees in instalments to run cricket and BCCI can’t keep doing it. “You bring the balance sheet and take the money,” he has reportedly told them.

But will they bring the balance sheet? Another thing discussed was the Central Bank of India account where rupees 6-7 crore of DDCA money has been stored, and which has been sealed after Sunil Dev filed a police complaint.

Manchanda and Sunil Dev had a massive fight on the issue.

So will the account be re-opened? It should be unless DDCA wants to make a mockery of it all.

The DDCA has to pay plenty of dues. They have to pay 4.5 lakh rupees for the SG balls. They also have to pay dues for water and there are pending bills.

Thakur also made it clear that the players’ dues have to be paid if future funding is to be continued and this is where Manchanda gave vent to his fury at Dev.

The news also is that the DDCA officials aren’t too happy with the interference of the government directors. In a letter Pramod Jain, one of the club owners, has written to them saying, “The results of the SWC elections were to be declared today i.e 16th September and with results to be declared within 12 hours, it would be sensible that the panels should be declared after consulting the sports working committee.”

Jain also added that the powers of the sports committee (SWC) is greater than that of the executive committee (EC) and without the concurrence of the SWC, EC cannot assume all powers to run cricket.

The problem with this assumption is that there will be fireworks in the meeting. The SWC is expected to meet later today evening at 5 pm and with Vinod Tihara-Sunil-Dev and Bansal having six members in that and CK Khanna-Chetan Chauhan-Manchanda having four members, there are going to be disagreements, firstly with the panel and then with the players.

Already Joint Secretary (sports) Anil Jain had sent out a list of 76 probables for the Delhi U-19 camp. Salil Seth, who is the convenor of the selection committee for all junior cricket (U-19, U-16 and U-14), was angry. He told Hindustan Times newspaper that this is ridiculous. “We’ll hold a meeting on Saturday and then we will decide and send out the list. Anil Jain is one of the signatories on the resolution that allows us and our selection committee to function.”

Anil Jain says that he did this in the capacity of being the joint secretary sports. “I called all the players to just begin the process. When the selectors come, they can have a look at the players and select from them.”

However, DDCA director Ashok Sharma has lambasted him. As reported by the Hindustan Times, he has made it clear that this is unauthorised as Anil Jain is no one to send out such a list. “This is illegal,” says Ashok Sharma “Mama”. There are fears that he had called his own preferred set of players to the camp, ignoring others and the selectors will be forced to pick players from out of them.   

Nets continue, selectors pay visit

With no coaching staff on Wednesday morning, Anil Jain (in white
shirt) and Maqsood Karim (in yellow shirt) handled the nets.  

A day after the appointment of selection committee panel, chairman of selectors Vinay Lamba and co-selector Hari Gidwani made an appearance at Delhi’s Ranji Trophy nets, on Thursday.

Govt nominees step in to save the day, name Ajay Jadeja as Delhi coach, set up selection panels

Tuesday ended on a bitter note for many officials at the home of Delhi cricket. All the top warring Delhi and District Cricket Association (DDCA) officials got kicked on their backside as the government nominees swung into action following confusion over the appointment of coaches and selectors. With the judges, overseeing sports working committee elections, not declaring the results even after two weeks have passed and they’ve been into the election process for about 80 days, DDCA’s government nominees finally put their foot down and took a strong decision, appointing two sets of selectors – for junior and senior cricket and also appointing Ajay Jadeja as the chief coach of Delhi cricket.

That should put the catfight among officials to rest, at least for now. In DDCA’s parlance, ‘government nominees ne officials ko phatte lagaya’.

The three nominees, Parvesh Verma, Rajan Tiwari and Sunil Yadav sent out a letter saying they had been upset with the news stories published across all newspapers on Saturday, the 12^th September, that ridiculed DDCA’s factionalism which resulted in three sets of teams going out to the press. Equally worse was the tussle over appointment of coaches and mentor.

The trio stated that they are appointing Ajay Jadeja as chief coach of Delhi replacing Vijay Dahiya from last year. Dahiya had been a favourite of Vinod Tihara group. The nominees have set up a senior selection committee, which will look after the Ranji Trophy and U-23 teams with Vinay Lamba as chairman. Hari Gidwani and Rahul Sanghvi will be the other two selectors in the three-member panel.

The three-member junior selection committee will be chaired by Nikhil Chopra, who will be assisted by Suresh Luthra and Sunil Valson.

The government nominees had proposed this and the proposal was duly signed by the 12 directors.

It has been learnt that vice-president Chetan Chauhan has threatened to resign from the post following this decision. He had proposed the name of Madan Lal as mentor, which was protested by Vinod Tihara group. Surinder Khanna was appointed as assistant coach by Ashok Sharma group. After attending the first day of nets, he didn’t appear on the second day.

Apparently, captain Gautam Gambhir was annoyed at all the events and didn’t turn up on the second day when the Delhi team only had their warm-up and fitness exercises. There is a belief that he had a whiff of things to come so he didn’t attend the camp.

Amid all this confusion and expecting that there will be brouhaha over selection of the team, the nominees took this strong step. Some unconfirmed sources say that the push had come from the top echelons of polity, the finance minister of the country, who had been the president of the DDCA till last year and who was apprised of the situation.

Whatever be the case and whoever was behind this, the decision has at least saved Delhi cricket’s face for the time being.

Gambhir turns up on first day of nets as judges' blunder puts cricket in limbo

The scene in the Delhi and District Cricket Association (DDCA) is grim to say the least. And with both the warring factions at loggerheads and closely tied following the sports working committee elections, there is little chance any one will give way. And there is no chance of announcement of a result anytime soon. Which means cricket will continue the way it has been and there will be push and pull from both the factions regarding players’ inclusion.

After days of speculation, Monday eventually saw the camp starting with captain Gautam Gambhir leading the charge. There were about 40-45 players under his wings. Anil Jain, of the Vinod Tihara faction and who had signed one of the three teams, was there as net coordinator and looked pretty cheerful in his office. Surender Khanna, who had been appointed assistant coach in the list sent out by the DDCA executive committee director Ashok Sharma too was there at nets. Madan Lal, who has been appointed mentor by Chetan Chauhan who also sent out a list, will most likely join on Wednesday as he has taken off on Monday and Tuesday. He had told the Hindustan Times newspaper that he will turn up only when things get sorted.

However, the crux of the matter has been the judges’ decision and how they blundered on a simple process. Normally, you don’t question judges’ decision. However, they could have easily avoided all this confusion by first deciding on the ownership of the five disputed clubs and then going ahead with the elections. That they didn’t, has brought the situation to such a pass.

They could have easily let the decision on the ownership be sent to the court or could have allowed both the factions of the two clubs to vote. But they didn’t and first went for the elections. Had the election results been one-sided then there would have been no issue. But unfortunately, the results have come down to a very close fight, 6-4 in Tihara’s favour. Now whichever faction he favours with his decision in the case of ownership of the five clubs, the other one is bound to go to the court as the stakes are high. So as of now the judges’ decision to drag this on for so long and get the priorities wrong has put the entire sports committee in a limbo and open to compromises.  

Three teams for Delhi Ranji, which one is the right one!

By now you may have gleaned the papers as to what is happening in the Delhi and District Cricket Association (DDCA). We don’t need to tell you that three lists of probables have been sent out for the Delhi Ranji camp and that apart from an issue over players, there is a brouhaha over the choice of coaches.

While Chetan Chauhan is hell bent on having Madan Lal as the head coach-cum-mentor, the rival Vinod Tihara group, who form last year’s sports working committee, have not named anyone as coach. They have put the onus on captain Gautam Gambhir and want him to handle the team.

Gambhir was quoted as saying by the Hindustan Times as saying that he is still not aware of the team, coach or the plans. “I have no knowledge of the team, camp, coach or how things will progress. I have been preparing for the upcoming season at a personal level. However, as far as the squad is concerned, I am yet to be informed. This is DDCA’s job,” he was quoted by the Hindustan Times.

Interestingly Gambhir and last year’s Delhi coach Vijay Dahiya gel well. The two formed a team during last year’s Ranji season and have had a successful partnership in the Indian Premier League at the helm of Kolkata Knight Riders. Dahiya has supposedly been the man being pushed by Vinod Tihara’s group. And Chauhan has been objecting to his appointment. It remains to be seen how it all develops. However, Naresh Sharma ‘Tappu’ said that they have shortlisted 2-3 names for the post of coach.

Ashok Sharma, a DDCA director sent out his own list and he pushed the name of former India keeper Surender Khanna in the list. It will be interesting to see how all this folds out on Monday morning, the day of the camp.

We are publishing all the three lists, so that you get an idea as to what players are being pushed by whom.

The two judges, who have been appointed at 10 lakh rupees for the entire season, however, are still sitting on the results with no headway in sight. Which faction has won is still not clear and if there is still no decision on the five disputed clubs on whose votes the entire thing rests, these things will get worse.

As of now Tihara group leads 6-4. And if it stays like this, there are bound to be fireworks. 

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!.”

Cricket suffers as sports Committee elections' standoff continues

It has been over a week since the sports working committee elections took place at the Delhi and Districts Cricket Association (DDCA). And still there has been no headway. Delhi cricket’s future remains at stake, with no one to take responsibility. On September 1, the date the delayed Sports Working Committee elections were held, Vinod Tihara’s faction, backed by Sunil Dev and Sneh Bansal, won six posts in the 10-member committee. The rival faction backed by CK Khanna, Chetan Chauhan and Ravindra Manchanda won 4 posts.

However, there are five clubs, whose ownership is still in a doubt and a lot depends on them as the judges were expected to open them and give verdict. The votes from those clubs can have a massive bearing, it can either bring Khanna-Chauhan-Manchanda’s faction to six posts or it can bring them to less than four and give others more posts. So it is very crucial. However the two judges, GP Thareja and Babu Lal, seems to be delaying matters and it is not helping anyone. If they accept status quo then obviously, there’ll be a massive issue. Over the last two years, either of the two factions won full majority. So decisions could be taken without delay. But with two factions now, there is bound to be massive debates and stand-offs in case the status quo remains.

That the judges are delaying isn’t helping. One wonders whether if they are scared.