Justice (Retd) Mukul Mudgal has made some scathing remarks regarding the functioning of the Delhi and District Cricket Association (DDCA) in his status report submitted to the Delhi High Court on Thursday.
Titled 'Status Report In Relation To The Supervision Of DDCA', Justice Mudgal has exposed the role of some disgruntled officials of the association who have been working to scuttle the domestic season and harm the interest of the cricketers.
“There has been a deliberate and wilful attempt to scuttle the domestic cricket season 2016-17. The bills and pending invoices for conducting the domestic season are not being cleared or are being cleared after wilful delay,” said the report.
The Delhi team has been struggling to cope with some issues related to travel and non-payment of bills even though the Ranji Trophy is not even four-matches old. The team is unsure of its impending travel plans since the travel agent has refused to book tickets due to non-payment of bills.
“The payments of the selectors, coaches and managers for the present domestic season and the expenses for the teams have been withheld despite clear and unequivocal directions by me to honour the agreements, which would adversely affect the domestic season of Delhi cricket and also affect the careers of several young cricketers,” said Justice Mudgal in his report that brings to light the intentions of some officials at the Feroz Shah Kotla.
In a move aimed at creating hurdles for the Justice Mudgal-appointed panel to conduct the affairs, the Executive Committee added new signatories for clearing the payments. The names included an official who was sacked as the media manager for his incompetence. This was before Salil Seth took over and did a fine job during the international matches beginning with the World T20 earlier this year.
'Facile ground'
Justice Mudgal pointed out, “The signatories have declined to sign the payment notes and the cheques prepared for the payments subsequent to my approval directly contravening not only the Court’s orders but affecting the domestic season of Delhi cricket by their obdurate and persistent disregard for the directions issued by me on the facile ground of the non-approval by the Executive Committee.”
Justice Mudgal also pointed out the mails written to him by one of the DDCA officials from the disgruntled group by “Commenting adversely upon my conduct and that of Shri I. P. Singh, a reputed former Deputy CAG of India, using inappropriate and intemperate language.”
The said official is the convenor of the Sports Working Committee (SWC), which, according to old timers, has been the bane of the problems at the DDCA.
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