Bishan Singh Bedi wants his name removed from Kotla stand
Former Indian cricket team captain Bishan Singh Bedi has written to Delhi and District Cricket Association (DDCA) president Rohan Jaitley, asking for the removal of his name from a stand at the Feroz Shah Kotla. This is after Bedi came to know about plans to install a statue of Rohan's late father and former head of the state association, Arun Jaitley. Here's more.
"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," wrote Bedi 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 and Jaitley were often at loggerheads during the latter's lifetime. Bedi had alleged corruption and misappropriation of funds during his tenure at the helm of DDCA. Bedi had a stand named after him back in 2017 along with Mohinder Amarnath.
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 honor his memory. Bedi lashed out at the DDCA for naming the Feroz Shah Kotla stadium after Jaitley and also stated he isn't enamored with the thought of a statue coming up.
Bedi said DDCA doesn't understand the cricket culture and has got the priorities wrong. "Since DDCA doesn't understand this Universal cricket culture, I need to walk out of it. I can't be part of a stadium that has got its priorities so grossly wrong & where administrators get precedence over the cricketers. Please bring down my name from the stand with immediate effect."
While stressing that it wasn't his intention to talk ill of the dead, Bedi said he had to stick to his principles. "I was not raised to carry on a fight to the next generation but then I was also taught, and I firmly believe, to stick to the stand I take," Bedi wrote.
