Delhi cricket thrives on corruption in selection: Atul Wassan

Former Indian cricket team pacer Atul Wassan on Thursday shed light on how Delhi cricket has been hit by corruption in recent times.

In an exclusive chat with Shanivi Sadana on Sportskeeda's Facebook page, Wassan spoke about how certain issues have damaged the production of quality cricketers from the state.

"Those days of power centres in cricket is gone. You must have read about the nepotism and all that, Delhi cricket thrives on corruption, in terms of selection, that's the most disheartening thing. You can embezzle all the money you want but if you fiddle with selection, you set a system where you do not pick talented players, and they move away," Wassan said.

"Age fudging is denting Delhi cricket"

A former Indian cricketer who played 4 Tests and 9 ODIs for the country, Wassan also represented Delhi cricket for more than a decade, after making his debut in 1986. Wassan was named as the chairman of the Delhi & District Cricket Association in August 2019 but was sacked from the role a few months later, in December.

Wassan shed light on the issues such as favouritism towards players, selection issues that are currently plaguing Delhi cricket.

"You pick lesser players who graduate from U-15, U-16 to U-19 and hence the pool of players are mediocre. A bureaucrat's son is selected and the problem is because Delhi is the centre, everybody's son wants to play cricket. People who run power games in DDCA, they pick up players," Wassan added.

The 52-year-old former India cricketer further spoke on age fudging, a problem which has also dented the growth of Delhi cricket over the last few years.

"Age fudging is also big menace. Lot of over age players play in junior cricket. Age fudging is also making the standards lower," the former India pacer added.

While Delhi cricket has produced a number of star cricketers such as Virat Kohli, Shikhar Dhawan among others, the team last won its Ranji Trophy title back in the 2007-08 season, and the new crop of cricketers will be hoping to end the title drought soon.