Top India players, including Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir, on Sunday came out strongly in support of Finance Minister and former DDCA president Arun Jaitley, who has been accused of turning a blind eye to financial irregularities during his tenure by AAP.
Jaitley headed DDCA for 13 years till 2013 and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has demanded that Jaitley must resign or be “removed” from the union cabinet to enable an independent probe.
However, Gambhir, Sehwag and pacer Ishant Sharma came out strongly in support of Jaitley.
“A lot of good things have happened in DDCA when Mr Jaitley was its president. An international kind of stadium was built, if you see what sort of stadium Kotla was and what it is now, all these things happened only when Jaitley was President,” Gambhir said.
“All these people who are criticising him now left right and center, they too were part of the cricket improvement committee, they were given top most posts and they were able to do nothing for Delhi.
“Now when he is not there as president, every kind of allegation is levelled against him. They should not have taken such positions in DDCA if that was the case,” he added.
Sehwag, on his part, lauded Jaitley for being there for the players. The swashbuckling batsman, who switched loyalties to Haryana from Delhi and retired from international cricket earlier this year, steered clear of making any political claim but lauded Jaitley’s role in helping players.
“In my time with DDCA if I ever came to know of any ‘surprising’ selection of a player, all I needed to do was to inform @arunjaitley,” Sehwag tweeted.
“And @arunjaitley Ji would immediately ensure correction and justice for the deserving players at #DDCA...Was a nightmare to speak to some others at DDCA but @arunjaitley ji was always available for players in case of any difficulty at any time,” he added.
Another Delhi player, pacer Ishant Sharma also backed Jaitley.
“Arun Jaitley ji has always been helpful, fair and kind in all my interactions with him #DDCA,” he tweeted.
Jaitley has rejected all the charges against him. Gambhir said things have gone from bad to worse in the DDCA ever since Jaitley stepped down as president. “I think, things have gone really bad after he vacated the post. If you look at the sort of preparation that was there ahead of the first class season this year, there was no bowlers, no wickets or nets, such things never happened when Jaitley ji was president. So you have to say that things were good when he was there,” Gambhir pointed out.
“I don’t know whether there is any corruption or not, I just think, the current officials should not be there because they never think about cricket. Situation was much better earlier. Things have never been so bad in DDCA in the last two years.”
Moreover, Indian Test captain Virat Kohli also came out strongly in support of Jaitley.
“Grateful to have @arunjaitley ji as the president of our association. He has always wanted to improve the game & help cricketers in everyway,” Kohli tweeted.
Prez refutes accusationS
Reacting to Kirti Azad’s expose on the alleged DDCA scam, president Sneh Prakash Bansal strongly refuted the charges saying that no company bill mentioned in the sting operation exists in the cricket body’s transaction records.
Azad, who has been campaigning against the alleged corruption in Delhi and District Cricket Association, on Sunday addressed a press conference to expose the financial bungling in the state body.
“I as DDCA president rebut the charges. They have misrepresented the whole story. The facts and bills that Wikileaks4India was showing were totally false. No bill shown in the sting was accounted for from DDCA. Our balance sheet is ready till 2013. We did not expect a company to do such a thing (sting operation) and some former and respected cricketers to back their bogus claims,” Bansal told reporters in a press conference here.
“Apart from VAZ consultancy, with whom we did some professional business, no other agency shown in the Wikileaks4India video even exists in our record. Sab kuch Farzi tha (everything was a hogwash). All records are with DDCA with the companies that we have dealt with. Their story is totally false. “As they showed that companies with whom we did our work did not have proper PIN, PAN or Service Tax numbers numbers is absolutely wrong. The companies that we have worked with have all got their documents in place and we have all the records with us which we can provide you,” he added.