The inclusion of a cricketer called Dev Chaudhary by DPL franchise New Delhi Tigers has brought a lot of disrepute for Delhi & Districts Cricket Association (DDCA), which will now “review” the rule which allows teams to field three players from the local league post auction.
The New Delhi Tigers, with one win from 10 games, are last in the eight-team table.
The man in question, Dev, played two games as an opener, scored 0 off 2 balls against South Delhi Superstarz and 16 off 24 balls against West Delhi Lions.
It was his innings against West Delhi Lions, where his unconventional batting stance and ineptness to even play one powerful shot, raised a lot of questions. Playing five dot balls to a spinner in the Powerplay had players, coaches and officials questioning in hushed tones as to how Dev made it to the playing eleven.
HOW DPL FRANCHISES USE A LOOPHOLE IN RULE?
The DPL ‘Tournament Rules’ this season allowed all eight franchises to pick three players of their choice outside the auction, with the minimum criteria being five matches in the DDCA League.
Now this was a rule that did not find a vote of confidence of a lot of DDCA Apex Council (main decision-making body) members as they feared it would lead to a lot of corruption.
Apparently, four Apex Council members, lawyer Shyam Sharma, senior members Manjeet Singh, Harish Singla and Shikha Kumar had protested against this new rule which they feared would lead to undeserving players being allowed to take part. Yet the rule was passed at the behest of some influential officials.
“It has been an absolute shame. I was the first one who had raised my voice about this rule. They made a criterion that five DDCA League games would be enough to qualify for a place in DPL without auction.
“Now I had asked on the forum, what if that guy hasn’t performed and picked. Dev Chaudhary has been exposed but there are many players like this who have come into the teams on recommendations,” Apex Council member and noted lawyer Shyam Sharma alleged while speaking to PTI on Wednesday.
Sharma claimed that he has again appealed to the DDCA Apex Council that this contentious rule “should be revisited and necessary course correction be done.
When DDCA secretary Ashok Sharma was contacted, he said: “The Rule will be reviewed once the tournament is over.”
DEV CHAUDHARY: THE PLAYER IN QUESTION
Dev Chaudhary’s cricketing credentials are unknown, apart from the fact that he was once summoned to the Delhi U-19 trials with hundreds of others.
The club from which he played DDCA League games to qualify for DPL is Sporting Club, from which India pacer Prince Yadav had also played.
The man who runs the club, Amit Vashistha, wasn’t available for comment, but another club source informed us that Dev indeed played a few league games for their club.
“He was recommended by former India U19 and Delhi pacer Pradeep Sangwan. He played two games and after that one of our senior club official called his father and told him that ‘Please don’t send your son as he isn’t good enough’.” The father didn’t ask any questions and Dev never came again. When we saw him playing DPL, we were stunned. How did someone like Rajkumar Sharma allow this to happen,” the club source questioned.
The team is coached by Dronacharya Awardee and Virat Kohli’s childhood coach Rajkumar Sharma, with Bantoo Singh as assistant coach.
Rajkumar neither reverted to multiple WhatsApp messages nor the calls made to him by PTI about how the little-known league cricketer, who played Delhi League (local tournament) games for Sporting club without any tangible performance, made it to the playing eleven of a top state T20 league where IPL scouts come to watch talented players.
Repeated calls and messages to team owner Ajay Kumar also went unanswered.
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