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Kirti Azad will be fighting for the Delhi & District Cricket Association president’s post alongside incumbent Rohan Jaitley.
Former India cricketer Kirti Azad
Former India cricketer Kirti Azad, who will be fighting for the DDCA president’s post alongside incumbent Rohan Jaitley later this week, has levelled massive corruption allegations against the current dispensation, saying it only spent a fraction of the approximately Rs 140 crore it received from the BCCI in the last financial year.
The current DDCA office bearers including Jaitley did not react to the Azad’s allegations despite efforts made by PTI to reach them.
As per the DDCA balance sheet, the state unit received a subvention income (money received as grant or subsidy) of Rs 70 crore from the BCCI in the last fiscal year while it earned approximately earned Rs 67 crore from other sources including the IPL income, match fees from BCCI and ticket sales of international matches.
“The DDCA gets Rs 140 crore from BCCI every year, approximately Rs 12 crore every month and Rs 40 lakh everyday. The grants that the association has been receiving have been mismanaged. There is no proper auditing of the books of accounts. Only Rs 7 crore was spent on cricket. Where is the rest of the money going?” Azad asked at an event on Tuesday.
The DDCA election will be held from December 13 to 15 with result declaration scheduled for December 16.
Azad, member of the World Cup-winning India team and sitting Trinamool Congress MP from Bardhama-Durgapur constituency, had invited Jaitely for a healthy debate ahead of the elections but the sitting DDCA chief did not turn up at the event venue on Tuesday.
The Jaitely-led current regime is expected to retain power but Azad sees a change in the air. A total of 3,748 members are expected to cast their vote in the elections.
“A change is constant. If there is no change there is nothing in life. I am confident. There is an undercurrent. People want change and that change is going to come.
“Rohan is like my son. I wanted him to come and have a healthy debate on various issues plaguing the DDCA. The members of DDCA have long been denied their rightful status under the sun. All other clubs in Delhi have proper facilities but DDCA doesn’t and that is why members don’t want to go there,” said the former cricketer.
He also alleged that the DDCA spent as much Rs 17.5 crore on installing floodlights when the much bigger Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad did the same for Rs 7.5 crore. He also alleged that DDCA is installing eight lifts for Rs 19 crore.
“There is no swimming pool, no badminton court, no bar or lounge. The members deserve better,” he said.
On cricketing matters, he questioned the logic of picking 84 probables for the latest Ranji Trophy season.
“Out of 84 shortlisted 34 played. A 30-member team went for the U19 event. have you heard this anywhere? The team is usually of 15 players.”
If voted to power, Azad promised to open nine academies in the city to ensure more talent comes through.
(This story has not been edited by News18 staff and is published from a syndicated news agency feed – PTI)
