Of kit tussles and unpaid bills

NEW DELHI: While Gautam Gambhir’s friendship with Harbhajan Singh might go a long way back, but when it comes to the field of play, it seems skipper Gambhir and his boys want to take no chances.

Just a few days before Delhi’s departure to Jaipur, the team was struggling for kits as they were yet to be delivered. The cause for the delay was a tussle between two companies, Bhajji Sports and TK Sports, who were vying to supply the team kits. While TK had supplied kits till last year, the DDCA still have to pay a massive amount of dues to them. This year, the name of Bhajji Sports, run by Harbhajan, cropped up.

The confusion resulting from the tussle between two factions promoting the two brands continued for so long that the kit was delivered just in time. Undecided, it has been learnt that the choice was left to the players and a couple of seniors are said to have rejected Bhajji Sports. Sources suggest that the team led by the skipper wanted to stick to TK Sports.

TK Sports, a company run by Harbhajan’s former Punjab teammate Taruwar Kohli’s family, ensured that the order which was given to them at a very short notice, was delivered on time. TK are still looking for their dues and shockingly, something that reveals the slipshod way in which DDCA works, their bills have been missing from the accounts department.

“However,” as an official says, “TK have the bills.”