Ranji Trophy | Two days ahead of Delhi's last home match of the season, DDCA staff go on strike

Two days before the last match of the season in this year’s Ranji trophy which is scheduled to be played at the Ferozeshah Kotla, all employees of the Delhi and District Cricket Association (DDCA) have gone on an indefinite strike. On Thursday, the Madhya Pradesh Ranji team were asked to practice at St. Stephen’s ground near Kashmere Gate, about 10 km from the Kotla.

DDCA chief curator Ankit Datta and BCCI-appointed neutral curator Sunil Chauhan were left helpless yesterday in the morning with no ground staff available to prepare either of the practice pitches or the centre pitch. The local team preferred to practice on the worn-out practice pitches at the Ferozeshah Kotla Stadium.

Datta with the help of a few local labourers and ground staff from other venues across the city to keep working on the square which will be used for the match which will start on Saturday. The employees have been on strike and are protesting outside the DDCA for three days in a row now. The employees in Delhi have demanded a renewal of their service contracts and an increment.

In addition to that, the staff has also demanded that the management should bring back the two persons whose services were terminated by High Court-appointed administrator Justice Vikramjit Sen. DDCA president Rajat Sharma said that the DDCA management was trying to solve the problem and get things back working smoothly as soon as possible.