DDA takes over city club that was once the home of cricket

It was at Delhi's Roshanara Club on a winter day in December 1928 when, after much deliberations, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) took shape. In the next three years, the club, founded in 1922, hosted what was to be the first unofficial Test match between India and England. It has also hosted several first-class matches and Ranji trophies over the years.

- Snehil Sinha and Sadia Akhtar

On Friday, around 5am, the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) with ostensibly a 500strong team of officials, sealed the club and took its possession. The seemingly ignominious turn of events for what used to be the home of cricket in India was triggered by the lease for Roshanara expiring, the officials said.

The land on which Roshanara Club was set up involved two leases, each covering half of the area. The first lease was issued in 1922 and the second in 1928 by the then government department while India was still under British rule. The earliest leases were for 30 years and were renewed in 1952 and 1958, then again in 1982 and 1988.

The first lease has expired since 2013 (it received an extension in 2012 for year) and the second expired in 2018. Club functionaries said the DDA did not renew the leases, citing a new policy in the works by Union urban housing ministry for all clubs in Delhi.

The DDA, on the other hand, has said that due process was followed and the sealing was carried out because the club had allowed encroachments.