 Hi guys, welcome to NewsClick. Football World Cup is over, the euphoria is done but luckily for us sports fans the sporting world moves on and at NewsClick we are looking at Indian sport now and we are looking specifically at a sport which is loved across the country, it's cricket but sadly we are going to discuss about the ugly side of cricket, the politics involved in it and specifically on Delhi cricket, DDCA. Recently during the course of the World Cup there was elections being held and it created quite a lot of controversies and DDCA is not new to controversies. Today at NewsClick Studio we have senior journalist Pradeep Magasin who has been around in the industry for a long while who has followed cricket up close the last 30 years or so and he will be giving us insights into the controversies that has happened over the years in DDCA and what is afflicting the game in Delhi. Welcome Pradeep to NewsClick. Thank you for inviting me. How are you? How are things? Things are fine as you yourself are saying that they are not fine as far as cricket administration is concerned. Exactly, it's been quite a, I mean it's not like it's just Delhi to start with cricket administration across the entire BCCI hierarchy structure is going through a revamp of sorts and DDCA is just one part of it but DDCA's case is unique and stands out among it also. You are a better person to give us a brief history of what has gone on. Well DDCA in the notorious world of cricket administration is perhaps the most notorious. It has over the years been mined in controversy right from the last 20, 30 or 40 years I've been following cricket. DDCA has never been a house which has been in proper order. It's run like a bar like a club. It is a club. It is registered as a club. Yeah, it's registered as a club and cricket happens to be a peripheral event for them. More important is to be office bearer, whatever ways and means they find. People get elected, be it cricketers, be it bureaucrats or be it even politicians. And for the last few years it was in more in news because it had defaulted in money. They were as we know allegations of corruption, even allegations of corruption against the present finance minister were there. He filed defamation cases against many other politicians. So in fact a stage reached a couple of years back when the board stopped giving matches to the Delicate Association because there were allegations of embezzlement of funds. Because as we all know the root cause of why people flock to cricket administration is because there's so much of money involved. Almost each state unit of the Indian board and there are around 31 units of the Indian board get around 25 to 30 crores a year as grants from the board which is huge money apart from whatever they can make through hosting matches. This is the grant which because board makes huge profits and it redistributes it among its affiliate units among its members. So if you are getting a 30 crore bounty from the board and that's the kind of money which you can run an enterprise for here, a huge business enterprise and that's the money which is supposed to be spent on cricket, on players, on developing infrastructure, on talent, on hiring coaches. But what stories go around is that not even half of that money gets actually spent and where it goes and nobody knows and DDC is one of the prime examples of no money. In fact even after getting these grants their balance sheets used to show no profit. So as a result the board were first because of public pressure and then the courts took over, there were allegations in the court and court had appointed an administrator former high court judge Vikram Jeet Sain who ran the DDC for the last one year or so before he announced these elections and a new body took over. So it's again if a body is corrupt like you mentioned DDC as a history of corruption but then when the elections happen again it's not controversy free it created more controversies then that says a lot about it. You are right you know strangely enough the elections came at a time when the Supreme Court as we all know that after those fixing allegations against former board president and Srinivasan against his son-in-law in IPL the court had ordered a committee which looked into those allegations. They were Justice Murgil was the one who did that probe and he found prime FSA merit in those allegations Srinivasan was banned. The Supreme Court then appointed just former Chief Justice of the Supreme Court Mr. Lodha a three-member panel which was asked to look into what can be done to improve the administration. It has prepared a blueprint which is known as Lodha panel recommendations which the court upheld despite the board's opposition to it. It has many clauses in it like 70 years age cap the cooling off period of three years between nine total you can't be an administrator for nine years but at one go only for three years and then cooling off period no politician no bureaucrat was allowed to be a board office bearer. So all these sweeping reforms the court accepted that the board should implement them. So board is resisting and we don't haven't still seen the end of the clear picture hasn't emerged because the board is contesting that they won't implement these recommendations or they may not implement some of them. The Supreme Court despite having passed a verdict is still listening to them. So in the backdrop of all this DDCA which was a defunct organization run by a court appointed administrator the court appointed administrator in his wisdom thought it best to have an elections to DDCA though the Supreme Court was still listening to the matter. In fact the Supreme Court is on the verge of now announcing a new constitution of the board in which it might accept some of the objections of the board. So even before the Supreme Court has decided on that constitution this election was held. So it's it's weird in a way because you can't how can you hold an election without the constitution and if you have the decision as is being made by a man of the law then I feel that you should have known better. You know when Justice Sen announced these elections what happened was that since the Lodha panel recommendation bans politicians plus bans people of over 70 years and people who have had completed a tenure of 18 years in all in Toto and also if they were in office for three years there was a three year cooling period what happened was that after these elections was announced strangely enough former president of the DDCA Sike Khanna who was ineligible to contest his wife stood in his place a treacherous brother in fact the relatives of all those people who were ineligible were standing in these elections which which is making a mockery of the spirit of the Lodha panel recommendations. I know in fact I had a chat with Justice Lodha that what is this and he said that look this is wrong but but it's undemocratic for us also now if we can't in writing say that so and so relative also cannot it is for them to realize that this is not done you follow the the the the constitutional whatever recommendations are in letter and as well as in spirit so they were breaking all spirit only good thing happened was that DDC elections always used to take place via proxy vote like if I am a member I give my right to vote to somebody else so there was there are people there in the organization which have hold over these proxies what in effect means that if there are thousand voters 500 proxies I have with me means 500 people have given me the right to vote on their behalf that makes I hold 50 percent votes with me so I am the one who decides whether I get elected or the person I want to get elected this time the court Justice San made and showed it that every individual has to come himself to vote no proxies were allowed but as people said the proxies were banned but this time the rule was proxy rule like my my wife get selected or my my brother get selected so the proxies abolished but the proxy rule stays and a known cricketer is the president you know but surprisingly the president who's got elected is Mr. Rajat Shyamma he's a he's a well known TV personality he owns a TV channel like I believe it's the number one in the channel in India he is affiliated we all know he's affiliated to the president ruling regime he's the one who stood as a guarantee for Jaitley in the court when there were allegations of corruption against Jaitley allegations made by the president Delhi chief minister Mr. Arvind Kejriwal BJP's own partyman former cricketer Kirti Azad Bishan Singh Bedi because Jaitley was president for a long period of time of DDCA and Jaitley filed defamation cases against all these people Rajat Shyamma in the court he came to the court and he said like I I can Jaitley is my friend I have seen him work he cannot be corrupt so so the Rajat Shyamma is the one who then suddenly we discover his love for cricket and for cricket administration he he announces his candidature against another cricketer Madan Lal who's who's been Delhi's finest cricketer who's played for India who's played in the World Cup he's the World Cup winning team player so he's the one who was contesting against Rajat Shyamma and obviously in in our setup it's almost impossible for cricketer to win an election against against all the manipulations which the other side can do exactly you mentioned Rajat Shyamma becoming a cricket fan suddenly or cricket love for cricket so we all love cricket being Indians and as cricket lovers when we look at it this is the glaring thing that comes out that Delhi cricket body doesn't have a cricketer or doesn't have cricketers who are taking the call for this thing and that would obviously be bad for the game right yeah it is I mean you you have to okay fine we can say that all cricketers won't make good administrators or all all administrators can't be bad at running sport which is true but to run a sport you need the help of people who have played the game you you may not make them president or you may not he may not be qualified to become a secretary certain players would be certain players may not be but to not create a system where the players have a majority say in how the sports part of it is done on the field is is blatantly it's not justified and if a cricketer like Madan Lal who has now administrative experience as well because he's been he's been a coach of Indian team he's been coach of Delhi team he's old enough experienced enough so if he stands against someone who has absolutely no cricketing experience of cricket administration or leave alone playing just because he has clout he's owner of a television channel he has a backing of the ruling regime doesn't mean that the voters at least the ddca members see it reflects also on people who vote yeah if people who vote are willing to overlook these things and just vote as a herd or or or where they see their own personal benefits then I'm not sure which side is to be blamed exactly and post elections and there were the obviously before the elections also there were appeals to supreme court to step in and stop this because firstly like you mentioned earlier the constitution is not ready yet and secondly there are certain recommendations which were not followed during the elections like for instance having an ethics officer an ombudsman to overlook that things are okay see there are charges of conflict see conflict of interest in cricket is is is humongous where there are conflict of interest charges against even players that they run coaching academies and then they become selectors which is in conflict because you can then select a player from your own academy into your state team or even an Indian team I mean that the conflict is there so because of that conflict Loda panel had has recommended an ethics commissioner which all complaint should go to him and he will decide whether there is conflict of interest or not in this case obviously there are allegations of conflict of interest against many of these people may be just even mother lal had an allegation of conflict of interest that he he was running an academy in Delhi now these should have there should have been an ethics commissioner to to go into these allegations Rajat Sharma being a owner of a television channel employers ddca members and players who come on his channel as experts that is a conflict of interest because it's a clear conflict of interest and and it's very surprising you will be surprised to know our viewers will be surprised to know that players cricketers like Gautam Gambhir Akash Chopra all made public appeals to vote for Rajat Sharma and what people saw in this was obviously political clout which Rajat wheels secondly the the channel he owns and the players would like to be on his right side because because he is in a position to I'm not saying he does it but he's in a position to to to kind of forgive them a platform on their channel maybe even hire them on contract pay them money so lot of these cricketers surprisingly did not side with mother lal but sided with Rajat Sharma it's it's odd actually but to come to your question about the way these elections were held you know the there is a cricket committee of administrators with the Supreme Court has appointed which former CAG head Minodurai heads it at the moment and he had expressed his displeasure at the way these candidates were announced and they had said on record at Minodurai was on record saying that they this will not stand court scrutiny they will go to the court and get this election nullified surprisingly the court hearing took place after the elections and the Supreme Court did not did not make any mention of DDC all it said was that from hence onwards no state election will take place till the constitution is in place so what in it effect means that okay did DDC election has taken place let it be we are not interfering with it whoever has been elected or not elected now the whoever are in the office bearers stay there but other state units can't hold the election which which in a way was a rebuff to the cricket and COA stand and which majority of people believe including me that if an election to DDC had to take place it should have taken place after the constitution was proper constitution was adopted so Supreme Court giving giving validity to this election you know there has been a lot of eyebrows have been raised around because Justice Thakur who gave the verdict of who accepted Justice Lodha's recommendations around more than one and a half year ago Justice Thakur was the Chief Justice his bench said that look we accept the Lodha panel recommendations total now more than one and a half years have passed and I've been attending these court hearings where the new Supreme Court Chief Justice Mr. Mishra allows the board to register their dissent these the dissent was allowed by Justice Thakur also he heard them he heard their objections and after hearing their objections overruled them and said nothing doing you will implement this board went for a review petition which was dismissed the board exhausted all the avenues they had with them legal avenues to overturn the Supreme Court verdict now even after that one and a half years after that Lodha panel recommendations are nowhere as part of the board's constitution and the Supreme Court is saying that okay now see Supreme Court said there was one vote one state unit which Lodha had recommended and it had said that one state will not have two three votes like Maharashtra has three votes Bengal has two votes there are a lot of states it had nothing doing just one vote others will remain members of the board but only one state unit will vote it the Supreme Court gave indication it's willing to overturn that decision it is willing to even now say that the cooling of period it is willing to ever relook at it I don't know what other clauses of the recommendations it's it's going to say that okay fine we won't accept them or we will take board's viewpoint and nullify those recommendations so even if after one and a half years of Supreme Court itself accepting or ordering the recommendations to be implemented they are not only being not implemented are being changed lot of legal luminaries included judges find this strange so that you mentioned earlier that there is the work is going on for the constitution and now that you have mentioned that there are a lot of things where Supreme Court is actually leaning towards the BCCI's arguments and so one wonders whether this constitution that would be framed would be going back to scratch in a way yeah see if some of the stringent most stringent recommendations were age cap 70 years because a lot of people beyond 70 have been in the board who have actually been in the board for 20 30 years they have been controlling the board politicians bureaucrats and then this cooling of period that would allow there won't allow one man to rule for eternity so if those recommendations are diluted then the very very radical reform which justice Loda had suggested get diluted and in a way yes then then you go back to square one but it's to be seen how much dilution does the Supreme Court allow and so getting back to ddca election and what is the future of ddca then because past we know it's riddled with controversies riddled with corruption allegations including building norms violations which dda has brought out daily development authority has brought out and after this election registrar maize on the head and non cricketers are there running the show again what will what is deli cricket's future what has happened in india is that a cricket is is is is running smoothly in it has a lot of money players are getting paid well indian teams are doing well ddca also its teams are not doing badly deli is a huge state there are neighboring states who periphery who come and play in deli so there is no death of quality players deli will cricketers will do well but they will be at the same time allegations of bungling of nepotism of of players being pushed who are not deserving into the team especially when you have administrators who are beholden to members who who main interest is to stay in power so if you main interest is to stay in power that means you are willing to compromise you're not willing to rock the boat so unless as loda panel's recommendation at least had is trying or wants to create a a system where there would be if not foolproof a perfect system no system can be perfect because ultimately it's the people who make a system perfect or or or imperfect so but at least there there are checks and balances in place which which which will be good at least we will see a lot of reduction in in in nepotism but it's again to be seen what finally the supreme court verdict will be ddca good luck to them good luck to the administrators to the people who have won elections i don't know what their aim is whether their aim is to improve as everyone says is to improve cricket or whether it's to improve their own clout yeah improve the stability of the clout never so that is because this would have a direct impact on on the field because again when we are following deli renji for instance renji team news they've always been in fighting they're always in problems with the coaches captains people being dropped people being this gotten into the team like you mentioned who don't deserve to be there and now with the player like gambir supporting this electoral process you can i mean assume that he would have some kind of say in the obviously the players who who for instance bishon Singh bedi has been one of our greatest cricketers has been fighting a crusade against ddca over a long period of time and even now he was at the forefront he appealed to the deli voters to use their vote judiciously to to vote for people who are actually involved with the game in fact here he appealed for to vote for surrender khanna was also standing in the election as one of cricket directors mother lul was a presidential candidate all of them lost so it just means that the cricketers themselves are a divided lot in a way you see on one hand you have these veteran cricketers who are appealing to cricketers and to voters to get together and and install cricketers in the administrative setup on the other hand you have equally powerful cricketers of the present times who are on the other side so they themselves are a divided lot and whoever has backed whichever cricketer has backed rajat sharma obviously stands to gain a lot and given the way i want to make a very important point i think is that given the way indian cricket administration is placed at the moment i won't be surprised that rajat sharma because he he does not he has not been a cricketer administrator so far that means he does not even even he hasn't been for even three years so he qualifies there are not many veteran cricket administrators who are actually eligible to contest the board elections so rajat sharma might for all you know emerge as one of the strongest candidates to be even the board president delhi wins there i mean yeah yeah so but but a sad victory when you look at cricket in a way because that's not how it should be ideal yeah it should not be that way if if the aim aim is to clean cricket if it is to be more transparent and this is like it's it's in a way it shows you that no matter what what checks and balances you place in you in in the system there are people find a way to to to kind of you know overcome them and then defeat the system so thanks for the for the insights into this murky world of ddca delhi cricket as well as bcc and the future which looks sadly bleak because things are not heading the right way and supreme court i mean obviously supreme court is yet to decide on the constitution but still there's a lot of subjectivity doing the rounds thanks for providing us this picture which which is not a great picture but still at least people should know that things are not exactly about victories of virat koli and the team but also about how the sport is run in the country thank you it gives me no pleasure to give a bleak insight but thanks for having me that's it from news click studio on delhi cricket for now it's like i mentioned earlier it's a slightly bleak picture where cricket is heading in in the capital but things will probably i mean things will probably get better but how better it's a matter of time we'll wait we'll have to wait and watch thanks for your time i hope you enjoyed the video