New Delhi: Lambasting the DDCA for deciding to install a statue of its late former president Arun Jaitley at the Feroz Shah Kotla ground, spin legend Bishan Singh Bedi has asked the body to remove his name from the spectators’ stand, named after him in 2017. The spin legend has said that only sporting greats should be honoured at the Feroz Shah Kotla, not administrators.
Bedi also renounced his membership of DDCA. He said the Delhi and District Cricket Association’s (DDCA) culture is to promote nepotism and put ‘administrators ahead of cricketers’.
“I pride myself as a man of immense tolerance and patience…But all that I’m afraid, is running out. DDCA has truly tested me and 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,” Bedi wrote in his letter to current president Rohan Jaitley, who incidentally is the son of the former BJP minister.
Arun Jaitley passed away last year. He was DDCA president for 14 years, from 1999 to 2013, before quitting cricket administration. The body plans to have a six-foot statue of him installed at the Kotla to honour his memory.
Putting his decision in context, Bedi wrote that he was never a fan of Jaitley’s working style and always opposed any decision that he did not agree with. “I’m not at all enamoured with the thought of a statue of Arun Jaitley coming up at Kotla,” he wrote. “It’s the Parliament which needs to remain him for posterity. …Sporting arenas need sporting role models. The place of the administrators is in their glass cabins,” he added.