Former India opener Virender Sehwag will head the three-member cricket committee of the Delhi and District Cricket Association. This was announced in a release issued by the newly elected DDCA President Rajat Sharma. Also included in the committee are two other former Delhi skippers Rahul Sanghvi and Aakash Chopra. Gautam Gambhir, who was removed as skipper by Delhi's electors last season, has been nominated as a special invitee.
However, he is currently playing, and, therefore, there is ground for conflict of interest.
According to sources, there was a huge debate and dispute amongst DDCA officials over including Gambhir in the committee. Gambhir's name was announced by the DDCA's newly elected secretary Vinod Tihara on the day of the election results. However, the announcement regarding formation of the committee took almost three weeks. Gambhir who is also nominated as a government observer by the Union ministry of youth affairs and sports, cited the same to dispute any ground for conflict. Reportedly, no amount of cajoling or argument could make him back off from being part of the committee.
It seems Gambhir's alleged conflict of interest is likely to be raised in front of the newly-appointed Ombudsman of DDCA, Justice Badar Durrez Ahmed, former Chief Justice of Jammu and Kashmir High Court.
On the issue of Sanghvi, who is a manager with the Mumbai Indians, DDCA officials said that as being a member of the cricket committee is honorary and he is neither a selector nor coach involved in picking teams, there is no conflict.
As per the release, “CC is authorised to form various selection committees as per the recommendations made by the Lodha Committee and the BCCI guidelines for state association and to give valuable guidance to the Association for improvement of cricket in Delhi.”
The convenor for the committee will be the CEO of DDCA. The association has advertised for the posts of CEO, COO, GM Cricket Operations, GM-Marketing etc and appointments are likely to be in place by August 1. As per the BCCI, the domestic calendar kicks off in mid-August.