The Delhi and District Cricket Association slipped further into the mire — and the possible loss of forthcoming international matches scheduled at the Feroz Shah Kotla — with a Delhi government-appoin
The Delhi and District Cricket Association slipped further into the mire — and the possible loss of forthcoming international matches scheduled at the Feroz Shah Kotla — with a Delhi government-appointed committee recommending
its immediate suspension by the cricket control board for alleged irregularities. The three-member probe panel suggested that running of the DDCA be handed over to an interim committee of professionals and also mooted a commission of inquiry into the various alleged irregularities including financial bunglings in the local association that has almost always been in one form of controversy or the other for years now.
The panel’s report was handed in on the final day of a BCCI deadline on assurances of required clearances for the fourth and final Test match against the touring South Africa side in the first week of December.
However, it was also made clear by sources that the government would make no recommendations on whether the fourth Test should still be allowed at the Kotla.
In a late development, the DDCA sought a one-day extension of the BCCI deadline and also moved the Delhi high court asking for a direction to the South Delhi Municipal Corporation for a provisional occupancy certificate (POC) to hold the match extending December 1 to 10. The matter will be up for hearing again on Wednesday after the court adjourned for the day.
DDCA vice president Chetan Chauhan said he was trying his best to make sure the match was held as scheduled.
“I know the deadline was till today, but the hearing in the court got extended till tomorrow. These are things which are not in our hands. We have requested BCCI to extend the deadline till tomorrow,” Chauhan said.
The Kotla is incidentally India Test captain Virat Kohli’s home ground. In case the DDCA fails to get the required assurances, it is also likely that along with the fourth Test — for which Pune has been put on standbye — Delhi may lose the India-Pakistan World T20 game slated for next year.
The three-member committee, according to reports, said the DDCA should be brought under the Right to Information Act to ensure transparency and added that the report be handed over to the SC-appointed R.M. Lodha committee, which went into the IPL betting scandal.
For the record, the DDCA owes the Excise department '24 crore as entertainment tax since 2012 and its clearance was needed to host the Test.
