NEW DELHI: Peeved with Delhi and District Cricket Association's (DDCA) decision to erect a statue of its late former president Arun Jaitley at the Feroz Shah Kotla ground, former India captain Bishan Singh Bedi in an explosive letter asked DDCA to remove his name from one of the stands. He also 'renounced' his DDCA membership.
The legendary left-arm spinner wrote an email to the current chief Rohan Jaitley, the son of the former finance minister, and the mail (in possession with this daily) points out how he was not on the best of terms with Jaitley senior during his tenure because of "corrupt practices" prevalent at that time.
"I write this letter with a heavy heart & a deep sense of embarrassment. I'm old enough to know that one doesn't talk ill of the dead. And I hope you are also old enough to be in the know of my personal relationship with late Arun Jaitley was never quite on the same page. Let's say we weren't really cricketing buddies when he was the President of DDCA. My reservations about the choice of people he handpicked to run the day to day affairs of DDCA is well known," the mail said.
The 74-year-old also pointed out how he was not thrilled when the stadium was renamed after the politician and this latest decision was too much for him to handle. "After the Feroze Shah Kotla was named hurriedly & most undeservingly after late Arun Jaitley my reaction then was maybe somehow good sense might prevail to keep Kotla sacrosanct. How wrong I was. Now I gather a statue of late Arun Jaitley is going to be installed at the Kotla. I'm not at all enamoured with the thought of a statue of Arun Jaitley coming up at Kotla. I pride myself as a man of immense tolerance & patience ... but all that I'm afraid is running out. DDCA has truly tested me & forced me to take this drastic action. So, Mr President, I request you to remove my name from the stand named after me with immediate effect. Also, I hereby renounce my DDCA membership."
"...But as we all know with honour comes responsibility. They feted me for the total respect & integrity with which I played the game. And now I’m returning the honour just to assure them all that four decades after my retirement, I still retain those values. A mere Google search would have helped to know that late Arun Jaitley’s tenure at DDCA was riddled with corruption. You being a lawyer should also know the cases of massive misappropriation of funds are still pending in courts."
Bedi also said that the current leadership follows the culture of "fawning obeisance" which pains him while pointing out how famous cricketing venues around the world pay tributes to former greats of the game instead of administrators. "Late Arun Jaitley I’m told was an able politician. So it's the Parliament & not a cricket stadium which needs to remember him for posterity. He might have been a good cricket fan too, but his dalliance with cricket administration was dubious & left much to be desired. This is not a rhetorical assessment but a factual appraisal of his time at DDCA. Take my word, failures don’t need to be celebrated with plaques & busts. They need to be forgotten."
"People who surround you presently will never inform you that it's WG Grace at Lord's...Sir Jack Hobbs at the Oval...Sir Donald Bradman at the SCG...Sir Garfield Sobers at Barbados & Shane Warne of recent vintage at the MCG...who adorn their cricket stadia with the Spirit of Cricket never out of place..so when the kids walk into these stadiums these majestic statues/busts enhance & enliven the inspiring stories of these past heroes that their elders tell them. Sporting arenas need sporting role models. The place of the administrators is in their glass cabins."
"Since DDCA doesn’t understand this Universal cricket culture, I need to walk out of it. I can’t be part of a stadium which has got its priorities so grossly wrong & where administrators get precedence over the cricketers," said the mail. DDCA had named one of the stands after Bedi in November 2017 along with Mohinder Amarnath.