Caught in a corruption storm, finance minister and former Delhi & Districts Cricket Association president Arun Jaitley on Sunday found support from Delhi stalwarts Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir,
Caught in a corruption storm, finance minister and former Delhi & Districts Cricket Association president Arun Jaitley on Sunday found support from Delhi stalwarts Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir, both of whom said that “things were much better when Jaitley headed the body”. Jaitley has been accused of turning a blind eye to financial irregularities during his tenure by the Aam Aadmi Party.
Said Sehwag on Twitter, “In my time with DDCA if I ever came to know of any ‘surprising’ selection of a player, all I needed to do was to inform @arunjaitley.
“And @arunjaitley ji would immediately ensure correction and justice for the deserving players at #DDCA...Was a nightmare to speak to some others at DDCA but @arunjaitley ji was always available for players in case of any difficulty at any time,” he added.
The dashing batsman, who now plays for Haryana and retired from international cricket earlier this year, praised Jaitley’s role in helping players.
Jaitley was DDCA president for a period of 13 years and his tenure ended in 2013. The AAP has demanded Jaitley’s resignation to enable an independent probe.
Delhi captain Gambhir too threw his weight behind the minister saying “a lot of good things happened in DDCA when Jaitley was at the helm”.
“An international kind of stadium was built, if you see what sort of stadium Kotla was and what it is now, all these things happened only when Jaitley was president,” Gambhir said here.
“All these people who are criticising him now, they too were part of the cricket improvement committee, they were given top most posts and they were able to do nothing for Delhi.
“Now when he is not there as president, every kind of allegation is levelled against him. They should not have taken such positions in the DDCA if that was the case,” he added.
Pacer Ishant Sharma, another Delhi player, too backed Jaitley.“Arun Jaitley ji has always been helpful, fair and kind in all my interactions with him #DDCA,” he tweeted.
Gambhir said things have gone from bad to worse in the Delhi cricket administration ever since Jaitley stepped down as its president.
“If you look at the sort of preparation that was there ahead of the first class season this year, there were no bowlers, no wickets or nets, such things never happened when Jaitley ji was president. So you have to say that things were good when he was there,” the 34-year-old said.
“I don’t know whether there is any corruption or not, I just think, the current officials should not be there because they never think about cricket.
“Things have never been so bad in DDCA as in the last two years. There is no one whom you can go to now.
“Today all allegations are levelled on Jaitley not on DDCA. My question is he didn’t run DDCA alone and even if he would have, things were much better then,” he said.
