The Delhi and District Cricket Association (DDCA) ombudsman justice (retired) Badar Durrez Ahmed confirmed on Friday that he had received complaints about conflict of interest leveled against former and current players, who were part of newly set-up committees in the state cricket unit. “I have received a few complaints of conflict of interest and I am in the process of taking it up and I will take follow-up action. I will go through them in detail from Monday onwards. It is regarding some former players who are in some committees and even current players,” justice Ahmed told The Indian Express. Last week the executive committee of the DDCA had suspended secretary Vinod Tihara after he objected to various appointments, including those who were part of the Cricket Improvement Committee, senior and junior selection committees and CEO, CFO and COO. “The appointments to various posts have been made in an arbitrary manner by the president Rajat Sharma without consulting the secretary. Moreover, some of these appointments have been made despite a clear conflict of interest violations,” Tihara said on Friday. “Even the minutes of the meeting of the executive committee has not been shared with the secretary. What process was adopted to make the various appointments and who were on the panel when the interviews were done? Nobody knows even these basic details,” Tihara added. DDCA director (cricket) Sanjay Bharadwaj went on an indefinite hunger strike at the Ferozshah Kotla from Thursday to protest what he has termed as the “autocratic functioning of DDCA president Sharma”. Bharadwaj has also written to the ombudsman on violation of conflict of interest norms. In his letter to the DDCA ombudsman, Bhardwaj has alleged that former India opener Virender Sehwag, who is part of the three-member CIC, runs cricket academies and that Sehwag is also the cricket operations chief of IPL team Kings XI Punjab. The DDCA director has also alleged in his letter that Sehwag is an expert on India TV, a channel of which DDCA president Rajat Sharma is the editor-in-chief. “If you look at it, the DDCA president's office is directly violating the conflict of interest norms,” Bharadwaj claimed. The DDCA director also questioned the appointment of former Delhi all-rounder Mayank Tehlan to the junior selection committee. Tehlan, according to Bhardwaj, is the cousin of Sehwag. The CIC picked the senior and junior selection committees of the DDCA. Bhardwaj has also written to the ombudsman stating that the appointments of both Aakash Chopra and Rahul Sanghvi, former cricketers, are in violation of conflict of interest norms. Chopra runs cricket academies, while Sanghvi is engaged with Mumbai Indians (team manager), Bhardwaj stated in his letter . Opener Gautam Gambhir, who is an active cricketer is also a special invitee to the committee, Bhardwaj said. The DDCA director had also alleged that chairman of the senior selection committee Amit Bhandari and member of the committee Sukhwinder Singh, both run cricket academies and fall foul of the conflict of interest norms.
