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.