Forget improvement, panel’s days numbered

The executive committee of the Delhi and District Cricket Association (DDCA) will meet within a fortnight to decide the fate of its Cricket Improvement Committee (CIC), a body given no powers and at loggerheads with a powerful panel.

The executive committee of the Delhi and District Cricket Association (DDCA) will meet within a fortnight to decide the fate of its Cricket Improvement Committee (CIC), a body given no powers and at loggerheads with a powerful panel.

DDCA’s general secretary, Sneh Bansal said, “We’ll be holding a meeting to decide on the future course of action concerning the CIC.”

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No direction
The CIC was set up in January last year by drafting in former players to improve cricket in the capital, but the panel has been in existence without any objective, power or an office room and has been in confrontation with the Sports Committee (SC), which runs the local league.

The CIC comprises 17 members, including five ex-cricketers —Bishan Singh Bedi, Maninder Singh, Madan Lal, Kirti Azad and Surinder Khanna. It is chaired by DDCA president Arun Jaitley.

A CIC member asks, “What are our powers? What are we expected to do? There have been 3-4 meetings but no minutes have been prepared after them. We have clearly no defined objective.”

Inefficient body
An SC official said that the CIC hasn’t delivered the goods. “What was the CIC’s contribution when the SC was not allowed to operate? The cricketers in the committee even brought in a sixth selector - Ashok Malhotra when there can be only five in the selection panel.

“And where were the members during the cricket season? Kirti Azad was busy with politics, Bishan Bedi was busy coaching J&K and Madan Lal was in an advisory role with MP cricket.”

A CIC member countered: “What else do you expect? There are no clear and plans, they have not given us any place to work from. We cricketers aren’t the only ones in it. There are 12 others, including the DDCA president.”