Top players back Jaitley amid DDCA corruption storm

New Delhi, Dec 20: Top India players, including Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir, today came out strongly in support of Finance Minister and former DDCA President Arun Jaitley, who has been accused of turning a blind eye to financial irregularities during his tenure by AAP.

Jaitley headed DDCA for 13 years till 2013 and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has demanded that Jaitley must resign or be "removed" from the union cabinet to enable an independent probe.

However, Gambhir, Sehwag and pacer Ishant Sharma came out strongly in support of Jaitley. "A lot of good things have happened in DDCA when Mr Jaitley was its president.

An international kind of stadium was built, if you see what sort of stadium Kotla was and what it is now, all these things happened only when Jaitley was President," Gambhir told reporters.

"All these people who are criticising him now left right and center, they too were part of the cricket improvement committee, they were given top most posts and they were able to do nothing for Delhi. Now when he is not there as president, every kind of allegation is levelled against him. They should not have taken such positions in DDCA if that was the case," he added.

Sehwag, on his part, lauded Jaitley for being there for the players. The swashbuckling batsman, who switched loyalties to Haryana from Delhi and retired from international cricket earlier this year, steered clear of making any political claim but lauded Jaitley's role in helping players.

"In my time with DDCA if I ever came to know of any 'surprising' selection of a player, all I needed to do was to inform @arunjaitley," Sehwag tweeted.

"And @arunjaitley Ji would immediately ensure correction and justice for the deserving players at #DDCA...Was a nightmare to speak to some others at DDCA but @arunjaitley ji was always available for players in case of any difficulty at any time," he added.

Another Delhi player, pacer Ishant Sharma also backed Jaitley. "Arun Jaitley ji has always been helpful, fair and kind in all my interactions with him #DDCA," he tweeted.

PTI