A day after Gautam Gambhir, Ishant Sharma and Ashish Nehra joined the battle against the lack of transparency in the state association’s selection procedures, Virender Sehwag said in Bangalore that “more players will join the cause soon”. Sehwag had lashed out at the Delhi & Districts and Cricket Association (DDCA) on Sunday, threatening to switch to another state if officials did not bring in transparency in their functioning.

Sehwag is in Bangalore as part of his rehabilitation for his injured shoulder and is expected to meet DDCA president Arun Jaitley to try and resolve the issues next week.

The DDCA, after initially calling Sehwag’s stand “pressure tactics”, went into damage control mode on Tuesday, asking its players to refrain from making any comments to the media. However, that did not stop former Delhi cricketers from coming out in support of the India opener’s stance, mounting the pressure on the DDCA to take some action to try and resolve the issue.

Most of them blamed the sports committee for creating an unhealthy atmosphere in the Delhi dressing room, and called for the establishment of a Cricket Committee — on the lines of the one appointed by the Mumbai Cricket Association—- that will have only cricketers running the show.

Vivek Razdan, who was part of the selection committee that was dissolved by president Arun Jaitley in 2006 over a controversy, says the pressure on selectors from the sports committee is huge. “We picked up a player because of huge pressure from executive committee and sports committee members. It was a mistake and I did not mind when we were dismissed,” he told The Indian Express. “The next time I was appointed (after a one-year break), I told myself I would never repeat the mistake. There was a fight with a committee member and Jaitley had to intervene,” he said, pointing out that Delhi won the Ranji Trophy that year.

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