World Champion and former Delhi Ranji Skipper Kirti Azad on Monday filed nomination for the President’s post in the upcoming Delhi and District Cricket Association (DDCA) elections.
From December 13-15, the DDCA will hold elections for all members of the apex council, including five officebearers and seven directors. The election results will be announced on December 16.
Following the filing nomination, former Cricketer lashed out at DDCA authorities and said “There is loot here. Eight lifts have been installed for Rs 19 crore. I have found out that they are worth Rs 7 crore 88 lakh (7.88 crore). The floodlights that were installed for Rs 14 crore a few years ago, they were installed in Ahmedabad six months ago for just Rs 7.5 crore even though the Ahmedabad ground is 2.5 times bigger than this”.
“This is the place where I came to play for the first time for my school and for getting selected. A lot of emotions are attached with this stadium, and when I see the corruption here, where bribes are taken for selection, children of directors get spots ahead of talented youngsters ,” said Azad, who played seven Tests and 25 ODIs for the country.
He said that the current state of the DDCA pains him.
“I have been to several clubs around the country but I never saw a worse scenario than this club. Cricket is like a religion in this country and the people who come here and vote make candidates win… so this place needs a lot of change.
The former all-rounder, who has played 142 first-class matches, scoring 6,634 runs and taking 234 wickets, concluded the interaction by saying that there needs to be overall improvement.
“I am very confident I will win… There should be improvement in club, cricket, professionals should be hired, CEO should be professional. Accounts should be maintained by a CAG appointee. All this is written but nothing is there on the ground.”
Other members from the Azad-led panel who filed their nominations for the DDCA elections on Monday are Sanjay Bhardwaj (Secretary), Gurpreet Sareen (Treasurer), Joginder Khari (Director), Aditya Jain (Director), Nitin Mehra (Director), Sudhir Agarwal (Director), Puneet Khanna (Director), Naveen Jindal (Director) and Kamal Chopra (Director).
The 2021 DDCA elections saw Rohan Jaitley emerge victorious in the president’s race, receiving 1658 votes while his opponent, Vikas Singh, received 662 votes.
