Rajat, top officials resign from DDCA

Tribune News Service

Advertisement

New Delhi, November 16

The Delhi & Districts Cricket Association (DDCA) has been rocked by a series of resignations led by its president, the journalist Rajat Sharma.

Sharma announced his resignation on the social media, following by resignations by CEO Ravi Chopra, CFO PC Vaish and GM (operations) Manvi Dhodhi. Minutes later, Cricket Affairs Committee members Yashpal Sharma and Sunil Valson too tendered their resignations.

However, in a late development in the evening, four government nominees who are part of the DDCA’s Apex Council, which was to put a seal of approval on the resignations, said the resignations will not be accepted.

Rajan Tiwari, RP Singh, Maninder Singh and Rakesh Kumar — all government nominees — have decided to reject the resignations and have decided to try to resolve all the issues among the officebearers and directors.

“All four government nominees including me have decided that we will not accept the resignations,” Tiwari told The Tribune. “As far as we are concerned, everyone including Rajat Sharma is still in charge of the DDCA.” Apart from the four government nominees, the Apex Council includes five directors and the officebearers.

The resignations were a direct fallout of a Friday night development, in which a series of decisions were taken by the board of directors. In the first act, suspended DDCA secretary Vinod Tihara was reinstated with full powers. Then the directors terminated CEO Ravi Chopra’s contract and, most importantly, resolved to withdraw all the powers vested in the president for day-to-day running of the association.

Sharma, it is said, has been an isolated figure in DDCA after the death of Arun Jaitley, who was instrumental in bringing him to the DDCA fold.

‘Watchdog on pilfering’

Sharma blamed Tihara and his followers for his resignation. “I was forced to work as a watchdog. I had to keep a watch on whether someone was trying to siphon money away or is indulged in wrongdoing. So now I am relieved,” he told the media.

“A few selfish people want to use contracts, selections and tenders for their personal gains. We kept them in check for over year and a half but it was getting very difficult. And I wanted to warn everybody through my resignation,” Sharma added.

However, a DDCA officebearer who wished to remain anonymous countered Sharma’s claim, saying it was Sharma and his coterie who were approving tenders and contracts.

“We lost to J&K (in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy). Obviously the right people were not selected. Those who made runs and took wickets in DDCA league were ignored. How do you expect us to keep our mouth shut on such matters?” he said.

“He was unapproachable. He brought in highly-paid staff. Everything added up. Good he resigned. We will schedule a meeting and then take it forward from here,” he added.