The Delhi Cricket Council (DCC), headed by former Ranji cricketer Gautam Wadhera, was voted to power with a clean sweep win against the Vinod Tihara group in the elections of the controversial sports working committee of the Delhi and Districts Cricket Association (DDCA) here Friday. The Tihara group was in power in the DDCA for the last eight years.
All the 10 DCC members, Wadhera, Ahmad Tamim, Ajit Singh Madhokm Anil Kumar Passi, Lalit Sharma, Manbir Singh Bhatia, N.K. Sharma, P.K. Soni, Rajiv Malhotra and Ramesh Sachdeva were voted to power in the 10-member sports committee. Madhok and Passi are the only one who retained their seats. Madhok, Bhatia, Malhotra and Sachdeva were earlier part of the Tihara camp, but have shifted their allegiance to the DCC, complaining of inactivity of the Sports Committee to improve the conditions of Delhi cricket.
Wadhera, who is with the Oil and Natural Gas Commission (ONGC), promised to ring in revolutionary changes to improve the state of Delhi cricket, the league in particular. Wadhera told IANS that his group will now work for total transparency in the selection of teams and promised to end the monopoly of a handful of influential clubs in packing the teams, particularly at junior levels.
The DCC, in its manifesto, had proposed that it would increase the subsidy for the clubs to Rs.1.5 lakhs and also make the league more attractive by increasing the prize money for all the major tournaments the DDCA conducts. "There are several institutions which are affiliated to the DDCA but they have no players on their rolls. If the institutions are treated on a par with other clubs, the chances of talented young players getting jobs were bright," said Wadhera.
-IANS
