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.