Kicking up a controversy over the proposed move by the Sharad Pawar-led Mumbai Cricket Association (MCA) to name its new clubhouse at Kandivli in north Mumbai after Sachin Tendulkar, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) asked the master blaster to skip the inauguration of the clubhouse, scheduled for November 11.
Three days after Pawar announced that the MCA would name its new Kandivli-based clubhouse after Mumbai’s legendary batsman at a function to be held on November 11 in the presence of Indian and West Indies cricketers, AAP’s Maharashtra unit convener Anjali Damania, shot off a letter to Tendulkar to disassociate his name from the new clubhouse and stay away from its inaugural function.
Naming its clubhouse after Tendulkar is one of the several initiatives taken by the MCA, of which Pawar is the newly-elected president, to honour the master blaster in the run-up to him playing his 200th and final cricket test match, to be played at the Wankhede Stadium from November 14 to 18.
In her letter to Tendulkar, Damania wrote about the manner in which the MCA allegedly usurped the land reserved for a children playground and converted into a swank private club meant for the rich and famous people.
“Aam Aadmi Party entreats you to not associate your blessed name with the MCA club which has blatantly stolen a playground of Mumbai’s children and made it into a swank club for the rich and famous. A Mumbaikar yourself, you know how our children are forced to play cricket in gullies, incurring the wrath of many broken windows. Almost all playgrounds have been stolen by politicians who make swank facilities with prohibitive entry costs. We have nothing against luxurious clubs — but they should be made on commercial land, not land stolen from our children,” Damania wrote in her letter.
“At this stage, when you are poised to put down the bat and signal the end of India’s most spectacular sports eras, the whole world’s eyes are on you. At this time, more than ever, you are being associated with a wicked club that has stolen the playground of the poorest children of a city that has been the Mecca of Indian cricket would be a complete shame. You would do well not to smear your good name through an association with this club which is besmirched in controversy,” Damania stated, adding that her party had already filed a public interest litigation in the Bombay High Court against the club.
Damania, who had in the past done an expose on the alleged grab of land meant for playground by the MCA, had alleged that a children’s playground was utilised by the MCA as a caretaker to construct a private club and running commercial operations.
According to Damania, the plot admeasuring nearly 40,000 sq metre was handed over to the MCA within a space of just five days after Sharad Pawar wrote a letter demanding the plot to coach youngsters in western suburbs of the city in September, 2003.
Damania’s contention is that the status of the open space was changed from playground to recreational ground, and terms of the agreement were changed from “adoption policy” was changed to “caretaker policy” to enable construction of the premises. She alleged that the MCA had already collected Rs 270 crore from private members at the rate of Rs 9 lakh per member commercially exploiting the property.
However, in what came to a boost to the MCA’s move to name its new clubhouse after Tendulkar, the ruling Shiv Sena in the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) on Friday had its way in passing a resolution naming the Kandivli Sports Complex as “Sachin Tendulkar Gymkhana”, at a civic group leaders’ meeting.
The adoption of the resolution should be seen in the context of the fact that a day after Pawar unveiled the MCA’s plan to name its new clubhouse after Tendulkar, Sena’s group in the BMC Yashodhar Phanse had objected to the proposal on the ground that since the plot of land was a civic property and that the civic body (BMC) had the right to name its properties. Phanse had claimed that the MCA was not authorised to name the premises.
Following the reservations expressed by Phanse, the MCA formally wrote to Mumbai Mayor Sunil Prabhu requesting the BMC to allow the cricket body to name its clubhouse after Tendulkar. On his part, Prabhu took the initiative to convene a group leaders’ meeting on Friday, to give a go-ahead to the MCA to name the Kandivli Sports Complex as “Sachin Tendulkar Gymkhana.
In a statement issued after the adoption of the resolution at the civic group leaders’ meeting, the Mayor said that the latest was the second instance in the 141-year history of the BMC that a civic property was being named after a living person. “In 1968, respecting a request from the then municipal commissioner JH Patwardhan, the corporation had named a garden after SK Patil (a former Mumbai Mayor, MP and Union Minister), This is the second instance that the civic body will do so keeping in view of Sachin Tendulkar’s incredible performances on the field of cricket,” Prabhu stated.