DDCA President Rajat Sharma Changes Mind A Second Time, Says He Resigned For Good

Cricket administration in the national capital was on Friday thrown into an uncertain abyss as Delhi and District Cricket Association (DDCA) president Rajat Sharma, on second thought, decided to stick to his resignation of November 16, even as the DDCA Ombudsman was hearing a clutch of complaints emanating from his resignation. The Ombudsman accepted Sharma’s decision and the DDCA CFO, who had also resigned, would continue to run the association’s day-to-day affairs, ordered the Ombudsman, especially as Delhi is competing in the ongoing domestic tournaments.

(Cricket News)

Justice (Rtd) Badar Durrez Ahmed also ordered that the much delayed Annual General Meeting of the DDCA should now be held between December 26 and 31. Besides the election of two DDCA Directors, whose one-year terms have already expired and they have to be replaced, a new president will also be elected by the end of the next month. Vice-president Rakesh Bansal will be the caretaker president till the AGM is convened and elections are held.

Besides Rajat Sharma and the CEO, the Chief Financial Officer, the General Manager (Cricket Operations), and the two-member Cricket Advisory Committee had resigned soon after Rajat Sharma put in his papers to the decision-making Apex Council on November 16. But it is not certain if replacements of these professionals would be chosen.

In his latest letter to the Ombudsman, it seems Sharma was completely helpless in the prevailing circumstances. He wrote that he had continued even after resigning only to abide by the Ombudsman’s interim order. “However, the situation in DDCA is completely chaotic and I find it impossible to continue any further as the president as directed by the Hon’ble Ombudsman. I find it impossible to deal with people who have no respect for institutions, be it High Court, Ombudsman, Supreme Court-approved Constitution, Apex Council et all,” he wrote, asked to be relieved with immediate effect.

“It is clear that Rajat Sharma has expressed his desire not to continue as president of DDCA. This entire controversy surrounding his resignation does not survive anymore,” said Justice Ahmed, a former Chief Justice of Jammu and Kashmir High Court, in his long order.

At the start of the third successive day of hearing on Friday, Justice Ahmed said that Rajat Sharma had informed him that he wanted to stick to his resignation, after losing support of the majority of the 16-member Apex Council.

Earlier, on three complaints – effectively favouring the president and calling for fresh election for all posts of the Apex Council -- lodged by DDCA members with the Ombudsman the next day, on November 17, the Ombudsman had ordered status quo until he delivered an order after hearing the parties involved.

But on Friday afternoon, when about 20 counsels of the various DDCA officials gathered at the India International Islamic Centre in New Delhi, along with the nine dissenting DDCA Directors, Justice Badar broke the ‘news’ of Rajat Sharma’s resignation, though some people present at the hearing later claimed that that they had got the wind of the impending ‘news’.

After the latest twist in the Rajat Sharma saga, the three resolutions passed by nine Directors also don’t survive, the Ombudsman ruled.

One reason being cited for not convening the AGM on time was that the accounts or financial years 2018-19 were not ready. The technical reasons given were that the new internal auditor of the DDCA had not taken a No Objection Certificate from the old one, and that some routine permission(s) from the Company Law Board (CLB) had not been secured.

On Thursday, a suggestion to get the accounts audited by the ‘Big Four’ – PriceWaterhouseCoopers, Ernst & Young, Deloitte, and KPMG – was floated, and all parties seemed to agree to PWC. But on Friday, it was said that the PWC was “too expensive”, and the idea was dropped.

Rajat Sharma came to power with roaring success on July 2 last year as his panel romped to a 12-0 victory, beating the panels lead by former India all-rounder Madan Lal and senior advocate Vikas Singh. But differences between him and a few of his key supporters, chiefly secretary Vinod Tihara, began from the first day and the schism only grew with time. Finally, on November 13, nine members of the DDCA Apex Council, i.e. Directors, signed a resolution to snatch the powers of the president and gave the council the authority to run the “day-to-day affairs” of the association.

As DDCA administrators fought a battle of attrition, on-field cricket has suffered badly. Like last season, this season too the various Delhi teams have fared poorly, with allegations of biased selection of players being one of the many complaints.

However, as one official said, the DDCA’s ills would not end with the resignation of Rajat Sharma. “Just wait and see, new fights will break between the different groups of the association,” he quipped. Truly, the last word about the DDCA is yet to be said.