New Delhi, July 25
It was a vote against change, and a vote for maintaining status quo, as the ruling group swept all the posts, save for two, in the election to the Delhi and District Cricket Association (DDCA) Working Committee of the Sports Committee on the Ferozeshah Kotla ground on Friday.
The Sports Committee voters, consisting of club representatives, reposed their faith in the incumbent group, to give them another lease in power. Vinod Tihara of Lal Bahadur Shastri Club and Vijay Bahadur Mishra of State Bank of India were the two candidates who scraped through from the rival panel, comprising mostly of former players. In effect, even Vinod Tihara belongs to the ruling group, as he was a part of old setup and switched allegiance only just before the election. An official of the integrity and commitment of Vinod Tihara was bound to retain his seat whichever group he belonged.
The
defeat of the other candidates of the rival group, whose election
motto was “change is the law of nature and a symbol of progress”,
was not really surprising as most of them were lightweights who lacked
charisma and clout, though they were former players. But the shocking
aspect of the final result was that even a former India player like
Gursharan Singh could not get through. Most of the candidates in the
rival group had their own agenda, as most of them run cricket
academies. But running the DDCA Sports Committee, apparently, is a
different ball game altogether, and the victory of the ruling group
testifies to this fact.
The election was a victory for Ashok Sharma
and group, as the clubs have reasserted their faith in their style of
functioning, though two of the candidates in the ‘official’ panel—Pradeep
Aggarwal and Ramesh Sachdeva—fell by the wayside.
The main grouse
against the ruling group was that league matches are not conducted
properly and clubs not disposed to the group are ‘harassed’ in
many ways, by posting their matches at far away grounds at short
notice. But none of these charges could not stick on the ruling group,
which has bounced back yet again to prove the prevailing opinion that
no mattter how hard one tries, certain established conventions cannot
be given the go-bye, so soon.
Those who emerged winners were: Ajit Singh Madhok of Tilak Nagar Colts, Anil Kumar Chaudhary of Darling Club, Ashok Sharma of Ravi Brothers, Brij Mohan Gulati of Delhi Police, M K Sharma of Inborn Cricketers, P K Soni of Life Insurance Corporation, Praveen Jain of Pahari Dhiraj Gymkhana, P S Chauhan of Pusa Youngsters, Ramesh Sachdeva of Friends, Vijay Bahadur Mishra of State Bank and Vinod Tihara of Shastri Club.
