On Monday, the Delhi & Districts Cricket Association (DDCA) has decided to cancel the felicitation ceremony of the Indian skipper, Virat Kohli along with former openers Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir in the wake of Pulwama terror attack, in which more than 40 CRPF personnel lost their lives.
Earlier, it was decided that the DDCA will felicitate the three greats of Delhi ahead of the final ODI between India and Australia on Wednesday. However, the cancellation has been decided by DDCA as last month the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) also decided to call off the Indian Premier League (IPL) opening ceremony as they will be donating the entire budget of the event for the welfare of the families of the martyrs.
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According to the recent reports of the PTI, DDCA President Rajat Sharma said, “We had plans of felicitating Sehwag, Gambhir, and Kohli but we decided against it since BCCI is also not having an opening ceremony of the IPL. We have also decided to donate Rs 10 lakh to Delhi Police’s Martyrs Fund. As of now, 90 percent of the tickets that were put on public sale has been sold out.”
The DDCA for the first time is giving a couple of VIP passes to all the former international players from the state.
Taking about the same, Sharma said, “All ex-players from Delhi, who have represented India deserve respect. This is the least we can do for them when an international match is being held.”
Earlier in the series, the Indian players were seen sporting camouflage-style army caps in the third ODI in MS Dhoni’s hometown Ranchi. It is widely speculated that it was the idea of Dhoni to do the special gesture for the Indian armed forces. In addition to that, the Indian skipper had mentioned that the men in blue had decided to contribute their match fees to the families of the CRPF personnel who lost their lives in the attack.
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India and Australia are scheduled to meet for the ODI series decider on March 13 (Wednesday) which will be their fifth faceoff at the iconic Feroz Shah Kotla stadium.
