Xtra Time Web Desk: Former India captain and legendary spinner Bishen Singh Bedi on Wednesday decided to quit Delhi and District Cricket Association (DDCA) over the association’s decision to install a statue of its former President Arun Jaitley at Feroz Shah Kotla stadium. The former India cricketer in a letter to the state association has asked them to remove his name from one of the stands which was named after him in 2017.
Lashing out at the DDCA culture, which he alleged promotes nepotism and puts “administrators ahead of cricketers”, Bedi also renounced his membership of the body. He made the demand in a scathing letter addressed to DDCA President Rohan Jaitley, the son of the late politician Arun Jaitley, who was a minister in the BJP-led NDA government and died last year owing to multiple health issues. “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,” Bedi wrote in his letter.
“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.
Jaitley 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.