18 August,2009 01:26 PM IST | | PTI
A day after Virender Sehwag threatened to quit playing for Delhi, a virtual revolt appeared to be brewing in the DDCA with more senior players like Gautam Gambhir and Ishant Sharma taking up the cudgels against the administration.
The players are unhappy with the Delhi and District Cricket Association sports committee which, they claimed, interfered in selection matters and also indulged in corruption.
The DDCA Sports Secretary Sunil Dev has refuted the allegations and said he was prepared to talk with the players and resolve the differences.
With more senior players joining Sehwag in the campaign against the sports committee, the DDCA President Arun Jaitley has told his officials not to precipitate the crisis and let things "cool down".
"The President wants things to cool down. He will meet Sehwag when he comes back from Bangalore and hopefully resolve all the issues," a top DDCA source said.
Sehwag, who is currently in Bangalore undergoing rehabilitation for his injured shoulder, is likely meet Jaitley on August 27 or 28.
The explosive right-hander has threatened to leave the team for Haryana, saying that he is frustrated with the interference in selection matters.
Gambhir andu00a0Ishant made it clear that he would "not hesitate" to move out to other associations if things did not improve and transparency in the selection process was not brought in.
Gambhir also felt the DDCA sports committee, which did not have a single cricketer on its panel, needed to be changed as it put pressure on captains and stand-in captains to play their candidates.
Ishant voiced his support for his Ranji captain, saying "he is absolutely right about selection matters".
| u00a0 |
| Ishant Sharma |
Interestingly, the revolt comes just days before the crucial sports committee elections and some of the DDCA officials are interpreting the move as a "pressure tactic" by the players.
The players have voiced their dissent only through the media and none of them have communicated their grievances in writing to the DDCA.
The DDCA vice-president and chairman of the selection committee Chetan Chauhan conceded that there were certain problems which needed to be resolved.
"There are problems which need to be sorted out, but I am sure everything will be resolved. We do not want to lose top-class players like Sehwag and others," he said.
