Serious breach of IPL accreditation process, unauthorised card
withdrawn
By Qaiser Mohammad Ali in New Delhi
A serious breach of the strict Indian Premier League (IPL) accreditation
process has occurred for matches at the Ferozeshah Kotla.
In the eye of the storm are a few senior DDCA officials and an
International Management Group (IMG) official who allegedly overlooked the
established practice to make an authorised accreditation card for the son of a
former Delhi chief minister for all eight matches of Delhi Daredevils.
Now, Delhi and District Cricket Association, wary of a backlash
from the IPL/BCCI, is trying to find out how many more such unauthorised accreditation
cards had been made.
The issue has become big also because the DDCA has failed to
deliver the usual accreditation cards to sports minister Ajay Maken and some key
officials of his ministry. Their cards were allegedly stopped or delayed by Suresh
Chopra, chairman of the DDCA’s IPL organising committee, as the accreditation forms
were incomplete.
DDCA treasurer Narinder Batra, however, insisted that he
himself filled the forms on behalf of Maken and the other officials and that
they were complete in all respects.
When contacted DDCA secretary general SP Bansal said there
was no delay in getting the cards ready, even as he emphasised that he had not
been involved at all in the accreditation process. “The cards were made well before
the first IPL match [on April 10], but they couldn’t be delivered for some
reason,” he said.
Chopra, also a DDCA vice-president, said that he received incomplete
forms. “I got eight or nine forms for accreditation for the sports minister and
some officials. They were blank; they had no photos, no email IDs etc. I asked Mr
Bansal and he sent the relevant information about them by email and we got the
cards ready the next day, on April 5,” Chopra told Mail Today.
“No accreditation card is made without the ID proof. Can you
imagine the additional director and joint director level home ministry officials
themselves filled up their forms? If they can, why can’t others. David Clarke
[accreditation in-charge from IMG] is a tough nut. He says his computer system doesn’t
accept incomplete forms,” he said.
On the issue of the unauthorised accreditation card of Siddharth,
son of former Delhi CM Sahib Singh Verna, Chopra said: “Ask Chetan Chauhan
about this.” Chauhan, also a vice-president, said: “My only job is to forward
the forms. I only forwarded Siddharth’s form. Accepting it or rejecting was
their job.” Siddharth was given a duty card as a member of the DDCA reception
committee, despite GMR Sports, owner of Delhi Daredevils team, managing all the
affairs this year. It was discovered that his form also didn’t have one of the
three mandatory signatures of DDCA officials.
Clarifying the issue, Bansal said that Siddharth’s
accreditation card has been withdrawn.
Batra, however, contradicted Chopra. “I filled the
accreditation forms of Maken, the sports secretary, the director general of the
Sports Authority of India and others, wrote their designations and signed them.
Do you have to verify their credentials?” he wondered.
“So far their mobile numbers are concerned, these people
never disclose them. And what is the requirement of their e-mail IDs? If they
were to make accreditation for the prime minister, or Sonia Gandhi or Rahul
Gandhi, will they insist on getting their mobile numbers too?”
When contacted, Clarke declined to comment. “I’ve no
comments to make. I appreciate you called, but from the IPL perspective, it’s a
confidential matter,” he said.
Batra has been supervising the conduct of IPL matches on
DDCA’s behalf in previous years, but not in this tournament. Now he has been sent
an SOS to streamline things. “I will be joining after the April 21 match as I’m
preoccupied with other things,” he said.