Sehwag and DDCA war comes to an end

The players' sedition spearheaded by Virender Sehwag against the all-powerful Sports Committee of the Delhi and District Cricket Association today crackled out to a tame compromise with former India captain Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi brokering calm.

DDCA President Arun Jaitley said that Sehwag and his ODI & Test Openning partner Gautam Gambhir met him in Pataudi's presence last night when the cooperation was reached.

Accordingly, Sehwag was not going everywhere and would be representing Delhi, Jaitley said, without disclosing how he managed to calm the star opener who had threatened to move to Haryana protesting nepotism in selection and the high handedness of the Sports Committee.

"Last evening, both the senior players met me and my DDCA colleagues and we were happy to have Mr Pataudi among us."

"We discussed numerous issues and I can tell you that the nature of discussion was not adversarial," Jaitley told reports at the Feroze Shah Kotla.

"They had mainly two concerns - to ensure that selection process is absolutely fair and that no intrusion of any kind would be tolerated. Their suggestions were well-intentioned and I told both the players and my teammates that both the steps should be taken so that the standard of fairness of the highest level is maintained," he said.

Jaitley said he never dreaded the issue would snowball into a crisis and called it an opportunity to set things right.

"I did not see it developing into a crisis. It was not a disagreement of interest. Their and our objectives are same. I rather saw it as an opportunity to reform," he said.

Jaitley also took a tunnel at some of the former players who had sided with Sehwag and criticised the DDCA.

"It was funny to see some of the causes of problems in the past becoming commentator of the problem," he remarked.

Even though DDCA officials were lined in the media as saying that Sehwag was free to gather his No Objection Certificate and move to Haryana, Jaitley completely denied that.

"No body ever said Sehwag can go if he wanted. The moment I came to know about his view on the subject, I told him to meet me on his return to Delhi. He did just that and we determined the issue," Jaitley said.

He said DDCA was toying with the idea of reducing the number of selectors and avoids any conflict of interests following reports of nepotism.

"It was a well discussion and both the players put their point across in a dignified manner," he said.

In the entire exercise, not a single Sports Committee head rolled as Jaitley sprang in support of the panel, which has been in the eye of the storm.

"The Sports Committee only recommends and it's upto the Executive Committee to take the final decision. When it comes to selection, it all depends on the selector's personality discretion," Jaitley explained, adding DDCA would find the right people for the selector's job.