Kirti Azad exposes corruption in Delhi cricket administration

Azad, in a press conference revealed several anomalies during the functioning of the DDCA.

Amid the controversy lurking around the Delhi and Districts Cricket Association (DDCA) and its former president, Mr. Arun Jaitely, sitting BJP MP and former Delhi and India cricketer Kirti Azad held a press conference moments ago and revealed about the corrupt practices allegedly happening in the DDCA over the years through a 28-minute video.

Azad had, before this day, alleged that the cricket association has been plagued with corruption and financial irregularities including providing contracts to fake companies, siphoning off audits and undue favours during the team selection.

These claims were also backed by another critic of the incumbent Finance Minister of India, the Aam Aadmi Party. AAP had also alleged that Jaitley was involved in massive scams that took place in the DDCA under his reign.

Today's press conf against Jaitley by one of BJP's own MPs should open the eyes of the PM. He must sack Jaitley. #KirtiAzadExposesJaitley

— AAP - Mumbai (@AAPMumbai) December 20, 2015

Although cricketers like Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir and Chetan Chauhan came out to rescue Jaitley, other cricketers apart from Azad, including former India spinner Bishan Singh Bedi have openly criticized him and blamed him for the debacle that the DDCA is currently facing.

Here are the key takeaways from the press conference that was conducted by Azad in order to expose the cricket association.

1. The video released via WikiLeaks4India shows that the DDCA made payments to several companies that were actually fake, as the addresses provided for these companies were found to be bogus.  Crores of rupees were siphoned off in this manner.
2. An account of the work done in lieu of these payments was never revealed.
3. Apart from this, crores of money were paid to companies that weren’t allotted any work.
4. The video also reveals that laptops and printers were hired for Rs. 16000 and Rs 3000 respectively for a day by the association, while they could be bought for much lesser amounts.
5. The unauthorized construction being done by the DDCA was prohibited by a court in 2003.
6. It was alleged that the prices of tenders were inflated manyfold by the authorities and there was a clear case of conflict of interests.
7. Bills were passed without conducting meetings.

DDCA gave money to a lot of companies and nature of work was never told: Kirti Azad pic.twitter.com/Y7neJ59LVu

— ANI (@ANI_news) December 20, 2015

This revelation has given a new angle to the entire DDCA saga, in which there have already been interventions from various courts. The India vs South Africa Test held between December 3-7 was also jeopardized following the failure of the DDCA to clear its debts and procure clearance certificates from the concerned authorities.

However, the Delhi High Court stepped in and allowed the association to conduct the game on the condition of it obtaining the clearances soon. However, in a recent development, the World T20 games to be held at the Feroz Shah Kotla are also in a state of limbo, following yet another failure of the DDCA to obtain compliance certificates.

In the wake of these events, steps must be taken to ensure that amidst this ruckus over alleged corruptions, the interests of the players and that of cricket at large are kept first, and proper precautions are taken to prevent any anomalies while organizing cricket matches scheduled to be held in the future.