New cricket stadium in Delhi, Arun Jaitley Stadium to have state-of-the-art clubhouse: Rohan Jaitley

Rohan Jaitley on Monday returned as the President of the Delhi and District Cricket Association (DDCA) for a fresh term in a resounding manner as his team swept all 12 posts in the association. Following his victory, the 35-year-old spoke to select media at the Arun Jaitley Stadium. Excerpts from the chat…

How do you look at the contest in DDCA elections?

Over here, it is a structure where people want work and deliverables, people want certain plans to be put in place on how to improve the ecosystem in the association. People have seen what we have done over the last three years, they have decided to give us another opportunity to serve them. (On Kirti Azad) Doing selective criticism only with the intent of contesting elections doesn’t fly. Organisations don’t become good or bad within 30 days just before the elections. For three years there was nothing wrong but all of a sudden everything is wrong. It doesn’t work like that. People understand what is true and what is not. Like for a member, when they come to a stadium, when they came earlier and when they came for the World Cup and thereon, they saw the change in the ecosystem. A lie can be sold only to a consistent degree, you can’t sell lies consistently.

WATCH | Rohan Jaitley's full video interview here

What are the plans in the new tenure?

What we are doing is planning a new clubhouse within the stadium, which will have not just the members’ facilities but also indoor cricketing facilities, restaurants, other recreational areas required for cricketing and members’ facilities. We are planning a new cricket stadium. We are already in talks for a new parcel of land. If we are successful in that, we will surely get a new international cricket stadium in the city. That is going to have exceptional quality of arrangements for members, cricketers and all sorts of facilities. It will be of the next level.

There was a similar plan 15-18 years ago when your father was heading the association…

When APJ Abdul Kalam was the Rashtrapati, there was a land bank on the Yamuna which was identified for a project where he wanted a cricket stadium, football stadium and a science museum adjacent to each other. There were NGT (National Green Tribunal) problems. This is not the same. There are discussions around a few parcels across the city. The assessments are being done by the authorities, based on those a call will be taken. We are in touch with the government and authorities over this.

What happens to Arun Jaitley Stadium?

This venue will still continue to host games, international and domestic. [Since] that project hasn’t [yet] been initiated, it is still in the nascent stage. The idea is [to have] the land, then what is it that you need. Then the process starts.

How many years will it take to complete the new stadium?

Not more than three years. You will be able to see the superstructure by the time my term ends.

The Ranji team hasn’t done really well in recent times…

We have been working on reducing the average age of the team. We inherited a pool which was much older than the average across the board. We have now reduced the age and are ensuring that the youngsters are now getting more exposure and games. We have been performing consistently in the T20 format over the past two years. In the red ball format, we are placed much better than what we were last season and the season before that. We are seeing an upward movement because we are a work-in-progress.

Kirti Azad had planned to open academies in each of the nine districts in his manifesto…

I saw his manifesto which came a day after our manifesto. I saw his team which got announced after our panel was announced. I saw lot of rip-offs from our manifesto. Like the matter of transferring membership of senior [and old] members to their kin or family member. There was a concept of high-performance centres which we have been working for the last two years – in Bharat Nagar and Pitampura. When we see that on the ground, we ended up seeing the result from the ground up. After seeing that, we decided to have 5-7 high performance centres (HPCs) across the city which should involve players between the state probables and your clubs and academies on the grassroots. So the best talent should be picked by the scouts and brought up and trained for 12 months in a common pool. The players should meet a certain threshold to be eligible. These are there on our agenda from Day 1. These HPCs will have BCCI trained physios, coaches and trainers. If you follow the data this is exactly what we have done in our two centres.

Will the infrastructure be ramped up here as well?

The ramping up of infrastructure here has already been done. We are 80% already through with the ramp-up. We had complaints of accessibility for differently abled persons. We are now making every place in the stadium accessible. We are giving the stadium a sun’s canopy shade. With these two, we should be able to fulfil the cricketing requirements. Barring that we are planning the new clubhouse. Nothing beyond that here.

Accessibility is already in the works. Canopy should be done within 6-8 months.

How much of a relief is a working secretary (previous secretary Siddharth Verma was almost absent)?

Every person holding the post, it is up to them to decide how much they want to involve themselves. Can’t really say much.

Tags : Rohan Jaitley, DDCA elections, Arun Jaitley Stadium, New Cricket Stadium, Delhi, Clubhouse, Kirti Azad