The hostility between the DDCA and the players is over, with Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir agreeing to stay with the Delhi team after president Arun Jaitley agreed in principle to most of their demands at a late night meeting on Monday. On Tuesday evening at the Ferozeshah Kotla, announcing that peace had been brokered, Jaitley refused to let his colleagues in the DDCA executive committee or the sports committee be seen in poor light.

“Last evening, both the senior players met me and my DDCA colleagues. We discussed several issues and I can tell you that the nature of discussion was not adversarial,” Jaitley told reporters.

“They (Sehwag and Gambhir) had primarily two concerns — to ensure that the selection process is absolutely fair and that no interference of any kind would be tolerated. Their suggestions were well-intentioned and I told both the players and my colleagues that both the steps should be taken so that the standard of fairness of the highest level is maintained.

“The sports committee only recommends and it’s up to the executive committee to take the final decision. When it comes to selection, it all depends on the selector’s individual discretion.”

On the face of it, the conclusion — a set of feeble measures without any concrete changes — might seem inappropriate considering what had transpired in the previous week. But the real picture — which, according to sources, assures the players a lot more than has been announced — is what has made Sehwag and Gambhir agree. “I did not see it developing into a crisis. It was not a conflict of interest. Their and our objectives are same. I saw it as an opportunity to reform,” Jaitley said.

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