Thursday, 29 October 2015

(Exclusive): Ex-ICC chief Mani misses Dalmiya’s ‘decisive leadership’

Qaiser Mohammad Ali, Managing Editor, www.jantakareporter.com
@AlwaysCricket

Former International Cricket Council president Ehsan Mani has said that the BCCI had delayed it far too long in seeking the government’s permission for the national team to play Pakistan in a bilateral series scheduled for December in the United Arab Emirates.

While describing cricket as a “wonderful tool” to connect people of the two countries, Mani said the BCCI “severely missed” the “decisive leadership” of Jagmohan Dalmiya, his late friend who shared his belief that the game could help bridge all gaps between India and Pakistan.

The immensely successful India’s tour of Pakistan in 2004 for the Friendship Series is the brightest example.



Giving another example, 70-year-old Mani said that the Edhi Foundation taking care of Geeta, an Indian girl who strayed into Pakistan inadvertently, for 13 long years illustrates that human beings could co-exist without political boundaries.

“It is very disappointing that BCCI, led by Mr [Shashank] Manohar, has left it to the 11th hour to approach the government,” the London-based Mani told jantakareporter.com

To be fair to Manohar, he reluctantly took over the BCCI reins only on October 4, following the death of Dalmiya.

Manohar then decided to resume talks with the Pakistan Cricket Board. He invited his Pakistani counterpart Shaharyar Khan and two other top officials for discussions on the possible resumption of the India-Pakistan series. But due to a protest by Shiv Sena workers in Mumbai, the talks probably didn’t take place in that city.

Now, it seems the issue is back to square one, and the ball in the Indian government’s court.

“It’s a times like this that the decisive leadership of Dalmiya is severely missed. He never hesitated in playing against Pakistan, unless the [Indian] government specifically intervened,” Mani said, about the former BCCI president who passed away recently.

“Dalmiya genuinely believed that cricket was a tool in improving relations between Pakistan and India,” Mani, who forged a formidable partnership with Dalmiya, emphasised.

To buttress his point of the significance of people-to-people contact between India and Pakistan, Mani pointed out the case of Geeta, the deaf and dumb girl, who inadvertently slipped into Pakistan in 2003.

The world famous Edhi Foundation took her under its wings and gave her the name, Geeta. This week, the foundation formally handed over Geeta to the Indian government in New Delhi.

“Edhi’s gesture is not in handing over Geeta, but in looking after her for all these years. In his [Edhi’s] eyes, and that of millions of Pakistanis, Geeta was a fellow human being who required love and care and Edhi provided it unconditionally,” underlined Mani.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi appreciated the Edhi Foundation’s work and announced a donation of Rs 1 crore for the body. However, the foundation politely declined the offer, pointing to its established rules of not accepting donations from governments.

“I am proud that Edhi declined the gesture of Prime Minister Modi of Rs.10 million. Some things cannot be measured in terms of money, just as the goodwill created between the people of India and Pakistan. By playing cricket against each other, they do more than any politician can ever do,” averred Mani.

“So, I strongly believe that the series should take place as it is wonderful tool to create people to people contact, and which is the need of the hour,” he stressed.

A chartered accountant by profession, Mani was ICC president from 2003 to 2006. During his period he forged a strong bond with the BCCI, particularly with Dalmiya, also a former ICC president.

A chartered accountant by profession, Mani first represented PCB in the ICC in 1989 and rose to become one of its directors when he took the chair of the ICC Finance and Marketing Committee in 1996. He chaired the committee until July 2002, when he became the ICC vice-president. He also held several other posts in the organisation.

Mani, who himself played club-level cricket for many years in Rawalpindi, fondly remembers watching the India-Pakistan Test series in 1954-55, when India toured Pakistan.

In an earlier interview with this writer, Mani had said that one of his “most abiding memories” was India’s legendary leg-spinner Subhash Gupte having Pakistan’s Maqsood Ahmed stumped by wicket-keeper Naren Tamhane for 99 in the Lahore Test.

“I also remember admiring Dattu Phadkar’s bowling. He was a great bowler, and Vinoo Mankad as a player — and Polly Umrigar and G.S. Ramchand — tremendous Indian team, actually,” Mani had said.

Wednesday, 28 October 2015

3 MEMBERS OF DELHI JUNIOR SELECTION COMMITTEE RESIGN, DDCA SLIPS DEEPER INTO COMA
Qaiser Mohammad Ali, Managing Editor, www.JantaKaReporter.com
My twitter handle: @AlwaysCricket
Three members of the four-member Delhi junior selection committee resigned on October 20, plunging the Delhi and District Cricket Association in a deeper morass. This committee was mandated by the DDCA executive committee to pick under-14, under-16 and under-19 teams for the 2015-16 cricket season.
Fed up with people putting constant pressure to pick their favourite players, three members of the junior selection committee of the DDCA resigned on October 20 as a mark of protest. They tendered a joint letter. Photo: Qaiser Mohammad Ali

Nikhil Chopra, chairman of the selection committee and a former India Test player, former first-class cricketer Sunil Valson, and selection committee convenor Salil Seth resigned en-masse from the committee which was duly appointed on September 17, after the three BJP government nominees floated the resolution.
The three submitted their joint resignation letter to DDCA general secretary Anil Khanna on Tuesday and sent copies to DDCA president and vice-presidents.
The third selector, Suresh Luthra, did not resign, though he was taken into confidence by Chopra, Valson and Seth, said DDCA sources.
In their resignation letter, the three persons say they were “shocked” at being sidelined by a section of the DDCA administrators who last week “illegally” announced a “parallel” selection committee without “intimating” them.
Last week, DDCA vice-presidents Chetan Chauhan and CK Khanna, who is also a BCCI vice-president, and sports working committee convenor Vinod Tihara, put up a notice on the noticeboard at the Ferozeshah Kotla, announcing new selection panels for under-14 and under-16.
“Our effort was to ensure that the players get an opportunity to showcase their talent. In fact, we selected the under-19 for the Vinoo Mankad Trophy and full marks to the players that they performed exceptionally well by topping the [north] zone in rather convincing manner,” reads the resignation letter.
“Now, in the meanwhile, a new set of selectors for under-14 and under-16 have [been] announced by the DDCA without any intimation to us, which is rather shocking and more importantly in violation of the earlier resolution passed by the same executive committee,” says the letter.
“This leaves us with no choice, but to resign from our appointment as selectors/convenor for u-14, u-16 and u-19 age groups. This letter may therefore be treated as our resignations.”
Anil Khanna said he has received the email and that he would talk to the selectors and the convenor on Wednesday.
“I have received their email. But I have not accepted their resignation so far. I will talk to them tomorrow,” Khanna told jantakareporter.com.
When pointed out that “parallel” selection committees for under-14 and under-16 have been constituted while the original one also existed, Khanna feigned ignorance.
He said, “I am not aware of that as I have not been going to the club [DDCA] for 10-12 days because I have fractured my leg and then my daughter fell sick. But it will be better if you speak to CK Khanna.”
The real reason, say DDCA sources, for forming parallel panels was that the Nikhil Chopra-led panel was doing its job “honestly”.
“These selectors were going about their task in a transparent manner, and this was annoying certain people in the DDCA who wanted to their own ‘boys’ in the junior teams. When all their efforts to manipulate selection went in vain, some of them joined hands and announced parallel panels last week,” a source told jantakareporter.com
“Imagine, CK Khanna, who is a BCCI vice-president, has become convenor of the under-14 panel. It’s hugely disgraceful he is not even living up to the stature of a BCCI vice-president,” he said. “The situation in DDCA has become really bad now.”

FINANCIALLY-CRIPPLED DDCA GETS Rs. 24 CRORE TAX NOTICE FROM DELHI TAX DEPT

By Qaiser Mohammad Ali, Managing Editor, www.JantaKaReporter.com

Twitter: @AlwaysCricket

The Delhi Excise, Entertainment and Luxury Tax Department has slapped a tax of Rs 24.45 crore and additional penalty on a financially crippled Delhi and District Cricket Association, and has asked it to pay it within 15 days.

Interestingly, the tax notice has come Financially-crippled DDCA gets Rs 24 crore tax notice a little over a month before the DDCA is scheduled to host a five-day Test match against South Africa at the Ferozeshah Kotla, starting on 3 December.

Ferozeshah Kotla Stadium that houses the Delhi and District Cricket Association (DDCA), which is perennially surrounded by controversies.It is currently struggling with finances and it remains to be seen how it hosts the fourth India-South Africa Test match, starting on December 3. Photo: Qaiser Mohammad Ali

This outstanding tax amount is towards the non-payment of entertainment tax, interest and penalty from 2003 to 2005. A 10-page notice, issued on 21 October, from the tax department says that if the DDCA failed to pay the arrears, “necessary action” would be initiated under the provisions of the Delhi Entertainments and Betting Tax Act 1966 for recovery of Rs 24,45,96,000 (Click to enlarge graphic below).


A copy of the letter, written PK Goel, Entertainment Tax officer, Delhi Government, is with jantakareporter.com.

According to the assessment by the tax department, the DDCA had earned a total of Rs 34.96 crore from 45 companies to which the corporate box seats at the Kotla stadium were sold between 2003 and 2005.

On this amount, tax at a rate of 15 per cent was levied, totalling Rs 5.25 crore. But since the DDCA didn’t pay the tax, a penalty has been imposed.

DDCA treasurer Ravinder Manchanda candidly admitted that paucity of finances was a severe problem. “We don’t have enough money. How will we pay this amount [Rs 24 crore]?” Manchanda told jantakareporter.com

Manchanda, however, said that the DDCA would contest the tax department demand and seek a stay so that it could host the Test match.

“We have sent our reply to the tax department. Their tax calculation is not proper. But we have made the payment for the current year,” he said. “This tax demand is debatable/contestable. Either we will appeal the tax department or move the Delhi High Court. We will be seeking a stay from the court. We will take this step soon as we have to host a Test match. If the match is shifted from Delhi it would be embarrassing for the DDCA.”

Jantakareporter.com learns that the BCCI had recently floated a proposal to constitute a committee, like the one that is administering the game in Rajasthan, to take over the DDCA reins as infighting between Delhi cricket administrators intensified.

Sources say although the idea hasn’t been implemented so far, it hasn’t been dumped either, especially as the BCCI doesn’t want any last minute embarrassment while hosting the Test match against South Africa.

DDCA’s problems are manifold. Apart from the long-standing arrears, it is financial crippled as the BCCI has not paid its [DDCA’s] share due to the association as it has not submitted its balance sheets for years 2013-14 and 2014-15 due to internal squabbling. The balance sheets for both financial years are not even ready.

Now, after Shashank Manohar taking over the BCCI’s reins and with the Supreme Court-appointed Lodha Committee expected to give a report on Board’s administrative reforms in December, things could become all the more tough for the enfant terrible DDCA.

Former India cricket captain Bishan Singh Bedi, president of the NCT Cricket Association, said that CBI has registered a case against the DDCA and some of its office-bearers for various transgressions.

“We demand that the BCCI should immediately appoint a committee to oversee the affairs of the DDCA so that cricket and cricketers do not suffer,” said Bedi in a statement.

Bedi said the CBI registered the case and their office bearers based on a complaint lodged by former Test cricketer Kirti Azad.

“The charges include loot in the construction of Kotla stadium; unauthorised construction; defalcation of DDCA funds; presenting fake bills; making fake, inflated and unnecessary payments to 15 chartered accountants and several lawyers to the tune of Rs 4 crores/year; and sham accounts prepared by an indicted chartered accountant etc.,” Bedi said in a statement.

Speaking to jantakareporter .com, Bedi said that the DDCA would have to pay the tax dues even if it didn’t have money. “We know the DDCA doesn’t have money. But the tax department knows how to extract its dues,” he said.

When pointed out that the DDCA has to host a Test match soon, Bedi said, “We also know that. But the BCCI will have to activate [itself] fast if the match has to be shifted from Delhi.”

Bedi said Kirti Azad needs to be backed as it was on his complaint that the CBI had registered a case against the DDCA.
“Look at the 200 letters and scores of messages that we sent to Arun Jaitley [DDCA president from 1999 to 2013],” Bedi said in his statement. “He never acted on any of them. In fact, he did everything to subvert the rule of law to save the office bearers who are now getting exposed by the investigation agencies.”

Sunday, 25 October 2015

EXCLUSIVE: THE VIRENDER SEHWAG I HAVE KNOWN FOR OVER 20 YEARS


By Qaiser Mohammad Ali in New Delhi

Managing Editor, www.JantaKaReporter.com
Twitter: @AlwaysCricket


After he finished the first day of the Multan Test unbeaten on 228 on 28 March, 2004, Virender Sehwag and I decided that we would have dinner the next day in his hotel room. Of course, neither of us had any inkling that 29 March would be a historic day in the annals of Indian cricket.

The next day Sehwag became the first Indian to hammer a Test triple century, and as per the plan I reached hotel Holiday Inn in the evening. It was a historic day for Sehwag and the Indian team as well. So, I was surprised to find no hustle and bustle in the hotel lobby, on the corridor of the floor on which the Indian team was lodged, and neither in his room. I was expecting celebrations to commemorate the first ever triple century by an Indian batsman.

Sehwag himself was completely normal. The first thing I asked him was about the celebrations. He said the team had told him that a grand celebration would be organised on the team’s return to India (but to the best of my knowledge, no such celebrations ever took place).

‘Viru’ said he had received letters/faxes from BCCI president Jagmohan Dalmiya, team sponsor Sahara India and Coca Cola while Hero Honda owner Pawan Munjal sent him a bouquet and two bottles of champagne through someone, besides receiving many phone calls.

After Sehwag placed room service order -- vegetarian food, comprising arhar dal and vegetable -- the Pakistani masseur that the Indian team had engaged for that tour came to give him a well-deserved massage. The only other person (apart from the person who brought the food) during my two-hour stay in his room was left-arm spinner Murali Karthik, but he stayed for just a few minutes.
The entire idea of recalling the scene at the Indian team’s hotel that evening is to emphasise that Sehwag stayed grounded despite achieving what no other Indian batsman had achieved till then – rather, till today: score a triple century in Test matches. He, in fact, is one of the two batsmen in the 138-year Test history to play three 290-plus knocks, the other being Don Bradman.
At the end of the tour, ‘Viru’ told me, “I went there [to Pakistan] with a blank mind. I only thought of playing well and performing. I was thinking that when I have performed well on the hard and bouncy tracks of Australia, maybe it would be slightly easy in Pakistan.”
Sehwag also did a lot of shopping in Pakistan — bought many DVDs, ladies suits, Peshawari sandals and chappals – as after all he was going to get married soon on returning home.
I have many other good reasons to remember India’s 2004 tour of Pakistan, particularly vis-à-vis Sehwag. He presented me the shirt that he wore while scoring 309 in Multan, after putting his signature on it (photo with this story).
Before the three-match Test series, which India won 2-1, was over, one evening when I was returning from the stadium to my hotel, I received an unexpected call from ‘Viru’, inviting me to dinner with him that evening.
When I reached his room, I got a ‘breaking news’: Sehwag told me he was getting married to Aarti, his long-time acquaintance, on 23 April. He had even got his wedding cards couriered to him in Pakistan from Delhi. It would have been a big scoop for any journalist; a story, accompanied by a photo of the wedding card, would have been a big ‘exclusive’.
But since ‘Viru’ had trusted me – and it was a very personal thing for him — neither did I write that ‘breaking news’ nor told anyone about it till date, except my family on my return to Delhi. This is the first time I am revealing this on public domain.
The reason Sehwag invited me was that he wanted me to help him draw a list of players, with whom he had played with and against, for sending invitation cards. There was a cache of reception invitation cards on his bed that he probably later distributed to his Pakistani friends. He gave me mine then and there, and wrote my name in his own handwriting.
The card clearly mentioned that children would not be allowed at the reception, but he still wrote my five-and-half-year-old son Ammaar’s name on the envelope. Once we finished making the list of invitees came the food, of course, vegetarian.
As I discovered at his wedding reception at hotel ITC Maurya in Delhi, Sehwag’s handwritten invitation card posed a problem for three of us – wife and son – at the entrance of the venue.
There were two printed lists of invitees – one from Sehwag’s side and the other from his wife Aarti’s – with which invitees’ cards were being tallied. I realised I was the odd man out. The people manning the reception hall entrance didn’t find my name in either list, and it took some convincing from me that it was indeed Sehwag’s handwriting before they allowed us in.
Another unforgettable memory of Sehwag is of August 2009, when he sensationally told me that he was fed up with corruption in Delhi cricket and planning to leave for some other state. Late that evening on August 16, a source called me up at my Mail Today office to give the ‘breaking news’. He informed me that Sehwag a couple of other players were seeking NOC.
“It’s a big story,” I uttered instantly. I immediately texted ‘Viru’ and he confirmed what my source had told me, and he was ready to talk about the issue.
While speaking to Sehwag, I realised he was extremely peeved with the state of affairs at the Arun Jaitley-headed DDCA. Mincing no words, he told me that he was fed up with the “rampant corruption” in selection of Delhi teams.
‘Viru’ also told me that if he had deferred taking NOC for a few days it was only because Jaitley wanted him to have a chat with him. After seven days, Sehwag and Nawab Pataudi, who he had taken along to articulate his point of view, met Jaitley he decided to stay back in Delhi after being assured of remedial measures to tackle corruption. However, corruption at the DDCA seems to have only risen since.
DDCA officials hardly treated Sehwag well during their long association. And this became starkly evident also on August 16, 2009, when I contacted a senior DDCA official to get an official quote on ‘Viru’ seeking the NOC to leave Delhi. “No, he hadn’t [contacted me]. But had he come to me I would’ve given him the NOC in a second,” the official told me.
Sehwag has remained grounded till this day, though some people have misunderstood him and, at times, rather uncharitably call him abrasive. But ‘Viru’ is known to speak only in one manner – formally and informally – and it all depends on you to interpret it as ‘arrogance’ or ‘typical Sehwag’.
On his comeback to the Indian team in 2008 – after being dropped for the first time for lack of form the previous year – Sehwag was in great form. In that calendar year, he had amassed 1,462 runs at 56.23 in 27 innings of 14 Tests.
After helping India chase an improbable-looking total against England in the first Test in Chennai in December by scoring a blazing 63-ball 83, he looked relaxed and contented when I visited his Hauz Khas home in Delhi for a detailed interview.
It turned out to be the longest formal interview that I have done with him so far – lasting over an hour, uninterrupted — and during which we had tea twice over.
He was extremely candid on many issues, including his relationship with former coach Greg Chappell; the confidence he got when his first son Aryavir was born, in 2007, a day before his own birthday, when he was dropped from the Indian team; and on what songs/Gurubani he sings while batting with Gautam Gambhir.
After the interview, Sehwag took me to the basement of the building where he had built an ultra-modern gymnasium. He even made me try out a few equipment.
Sehwag has not been kind only to me but also to my son, who would often send him good wishes for matches either in the form of hand-made greeting cards or by recording his voice on tape. ‘Viru’ would either record his reply on tape or write back.
We have had meals/tea in his hotel rooms at various locations, in and outside India. But I never sought any confidential information from Sehwag, nor he did he offer any, ever. Perhaps, it was this solid foundation on which our relationship was built, and perhaps ‘Viru’ quietly acknowledged. The relationship is now 20 years old and going strong.
(This article first appeared on www.JantaKaReporter.com)