Retired HC judge tells DDCA to pay from own pocket for expenditures over and above sanctioned limit for conduct of India-South Africa Test
This is a typical case of how cricket is being run in the Delhi & District Cricket Association (DDCA) for many years. Despite Delhi High Court appointing retired Justice Mukul Mudgal to conduct the India-South Africa final Test transparently, there are officials including working president Chetan Chauhan and DDCA vice-president CK Khanna who have tried to undermine his authority by allegedly trying to push bills (over and above the sanctioned ones) to the tune of more than Rs 20 lakh.
On Sunday, when Justice Mudgal called senior DDCA officials for a meeting to take stock of the upcoming second T20 match between India and Sri Lanka on February 12 at the Ferozeshah Kotla here, he found both Chauhan and Khanna missing from the scene. Though the former India opener Chauhan came an hour late, DDCA and BCCI's vice-president Khanna was nowhere to be seen.
But it was when Chauhan tried to push through bills signed and sanctioned by him or a few other DDCA top bosses that Justice Mudgal lost his temper. The retired chief justice of Punjab and Haryana High Court, according to an insider, questioned Chauhan "how come so many names have been added in the list of workers appointed by him to oversee the smooth functioning during the Test?"
"There was a staff of around 28 people sanctioned by me," an angry Justice Mudgal told Chauhan after he saw a fresh list of around 55 names with Chauhan, according to the insider. "According to your list, there were nine people manning the media enclosure. Whereas, there were only three including the media manager. I can't understand why over Rs 11.5 lakh spent extra on food bills to accommodate these internal free loaders," Justice Mudgal reportedly added.
Interestingly, there were eight people assigned to man the giant scoreboard in Kotla. But Chauhan's list listed 16!
Chauhan, in his defence, tried to reason out how 30 people used to man the scoreboard in the past. But Justice Mudgal straightaway refused to sign any of the bills put before him on Sunday.
It must be mentioned here that Chauhan was given power during the Test to sign bills below Rs 1 lakh. But dna has reliably learnt that the acting DDCA president, in connivance with his other colleagues (read Khanna mostly) allegedly added their trusted proxy collectors (one who gets votes for Khanna) not just in the list to dole out fat cheques to them but also entertained them and their relatives with free lunches during the game.
"Pay from own pocket," was the final verdict of Justice Mudgal.
When asked for his comment, Justice Mudgal said: "I've not signed any bill."
Rs 2-crore profit
dna has reported on several occasions how DDCA has doled out freebies to all the near and dear ones of these proxy holders. Despite the short time to conduct the Test, Justice Mudgal-led team managed to make a profit of close to Rs 2 crore from the five-day match.
Interestingly, DDCA has always shown losses in the last one decade or so as and when matches were hosted here.
"If without any time and resources, a Rs 2 crore profit can be made by Justice Mudgal team, then imagine how much these so-called DDCA administrators have looted over the last decade or so," said former India wicket-keeper batsman Surinder Khanna.
Delhi, being a permanent Test centre, does get at least one Test and a ODI to host in a year. Going by any logic, DDCA would have made profits of over Rs 50 crore or so in the last one decade. And this certainly does not include Indian Premier League (six to eight matches) in a season along with the subvention money of over Rs 35 crore a year.
'India-SL T20 may not be possible'
Going by Delhi HC orders, Justice Mudgal was given charge of DDCA till March 31. And it was only during the meeting on Sunday that he came to know that "India-Sri Lanka game may not even be possible in Delhi".
He learnt that DDCA has not even applied for necessary permissions and clearances from the various agencies of Delhi and central government to host the game.
However, Mudgal has made it amply clear to Chauhan that "it would be him who will again form the working committees for the game and not the way DDCA tried to do earlier" when Chauhan told him about the continuance of media manager Ravi Jain.
Going by the insider's account, Chauhan has been told that a lot of complaints were received regarding Jain and hence he needs to be replaced.
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