Sehwag hit-and-miss trying to acquire second Delhi club
NEW DELHI: The Delhi association’s (DDCA) club politics which confer voting power and a say in ensuring your academy children get to play in the league and for the state, seems to have caught the fancy of the Capital’s biggest cricket icon — Virender Sehwag.
The dashing opener, in the last legs of his career, took over Hind Cricket Club last year. However, his bid to acquire Collage, a top-flight club, has failed, it has been learnt.
Sehwag’s long-time friend and coach Raju Sharma runs Hind Club. He is the club secretary, runs its dayto-day affairs and has the power to vote.
In 2009, Sehwag had threatened to quit Delhi and play Ranji for Haryana to protest the shabby working of the Delhi selection committee. He was pacified to stay on. However, the influence as a club owner can be alluring. NO EXPANSION Despite the Capital’s exponential growth in population, the number of DDCA clubs has remained stagnant at 111 since 1986 — 30 institutional and 81 private. Clubs feature in the official league, per- formances in which form the basis for selection to Delhi teams.
“This has led to a desperate bid to take over clubs. In most cases, you have to pay an amount in cash. These days, owners can demand over a crore,” says an old DDCA member, who is himself ready to pay over ` 1 crore to get a club.
While there is no system of owning clubs as they can’t be sold, the secretary’s name is changed to denote it has changed hands.
He gets powers, and at the time of sports committee elections, his vote matters. He can contest the sports committee elections and be in a position to push his players through. The more clubs you have, the more powerful you become.
“A mere application on the club letterhead denoting the change of secretary and some signatures are good enough to seal the deal,” says a club owner.
The money is never mentioned.
Of late, clubs change hands rapidly. A club that was worth over ` 2 lakh 12 years ago is now valued at almost 35-40 times of that amount!