A tale of two tickets

Recommendation "ignored”
Though "it would have been desirable… for the president/managing committee to have promptly issued a formal letter confirming their appointment of the EC giving terms of reference and expressing their unconditional support and assistance for the enquiry to be conducted expeditiously,” this was not done and instead the president and two joint honorary secretaries resigned, notes the report.
The EC had also recommended that during the pendency of the inquiry Yazdegardi "step down” from all posts, extend cooperation, not attempt to influence the EC nor access any records, correspondence, accounts, etc. "Unfortunately, all our recommendations were totally ignored and none of the above was complied with.”
The MCA allotted 700 to 800 tickets and four complimentary tickets for the April 2011 World Cup Finals between India and Sri Lanka at the Wankhede Stadium to the 1,400 member PG as per their usual practice. The tickets are nominally priced by the MCA and sold to the various gymkhanas which in turn sell them at a markedly higher price to members and others. The sale of the tickets reportedly fetched the PG a handsome return of Rs 98 lakhs. In addition it is alleged that some members bought a large number of tickets for around Rs 20,000 and then re-sold them in the open market for Rs 70,000 or Rs 80,000.
The stormy AGM, which authorized the formation of the EC at the initiative of Jessie Mistry, former honorary treasurer of PG for 10 years who resigned in June 2013, was adjourned half-way without completing the agenda or elections. This adjournment was due to the "acrimony, dissent and differences between a majority of members and the office bearers,” notes the EC report. Mistry has put in his papers for the president’s post vacated by Hoshang Wania but his papers have been reportedly turned down on an alleged technicality.
During his deposition before the EC, Thakur explained that all "complimentary tickets were handled and distributed by Yazdegardi alone... Only two Grand Stand complimentary tickets were allotted by MCA to our Gymkhana, meant for the then president (late) Dhanbhoora and two more Divecha Stand complimentary tickets were allotted by MCA at a later date, which were meant for other officials of Gymkhana. All these were kept as per usual practice, in the possession of Yazdegardi only... The two tickets of the Grand Stand pavilion were initially handed over to Dhanbhoora but after some time were called back by Yazdegardi on some pretext and were then replaced by the two tickets of Divecha Stand,” the report alleges. Thakur asserted that Dhanbhoora sat in the Divecha Stand.
Yazdegardi reportedly instructed Thakur to sell the two tickets of the Grand Stand pavilion "at a minimum price of Rs 1 to 1.10 lakh each.”
The EC report states Thakur found "a buyer (identity not revealed as he cannot now recollect due to passage of time) who was willing to buy the two tickets for Rs 1.25 lakhs each.” Yazdegardi then sent the two tickets to Thakur at the Gymkhana office through his office boy. Thakur brought "Rs 2.50 lakhs in cash to the Gymkhana office” and the amount was "counted jointly with Toorkey and soon after on receipt of telephonic instructions by Yazdegardi, this entire amount was carried personally by Thakur to the office of Yazdegardi and handed over to him in presence of two of his lady staff members.”
Toorkey deposed before the EC and confirmed Thakur’s narration of events.
"A strange aspect noticed,” as per the report, "was that the file containing cricket correspondence is kept in the possession of the Cricket Committee and not in the office as every other file is kept. It defies our understanding why this is so but in any case while perusing the correspondence of this file, it was seen that it did not contain any letter or record pertaining to the complimentary tickets of the 2011 World Cup Finals. On the other hand, two persons… confirmed in their depositions, that all such tickets were always sent under cover of a letter by MCA.
"We could have written to the MCA to obtain past records for our investigations; however we did not wish to open a Pandora’s Box as any enquiry by MCA would have worked against the Gymkhana’s interest and created a scandal in the Press and the public. Another fact noticed pertaining to the regular tickets for members and guests, was that some of our members including office bearers and cricket sub-committee members had purchased guest tickets of the 2011 Cricket World Cup Finals in quite large quantities.
"While per se there is nothing wrong with this as the aim of the Gymkhana was to sell as many such tickets to earn profit, it appears baffling that these members were actually able to sell so many tickets in bulk at such high rates, if indeed it was so. We are bringing this up solely because there have been strong and sustained murmurs amongst members about some past managing committee and cricket sub-committee members having got pecuniary benefit through such sales and are therefore not wanting to rock the boat by allowing any proper investigation in the matter of complimentary tickets. It appears that there is indeed more to it than meets the eye! However we leave it for the general body to draw their own inferences.”
In his deposition Wania "maintained that this and many other allegations against Yazdegardi are totally false and are a result of personal vendetta and bias on the part of some members… that there is no truth in the allegation under investigation and therefore he and other office bearers of the last managing committee did not feel it necessary to take this seriously or even investigate further. His main point of contention was that the matter being more than two years old why was the matter raised so late in the day by some members and his surmise is that it was done with some ulterior motive.” Wania resigned reportedly on September 27, 2013. The senior most vice president Kaizad Wadia was appointed acting president.
Yazdegardi presented himself before the committee "but at the very start he stated that he would answer the committee and take part in the proceeding only subject to certain conditions.”
He was told that "conditional deposition was not acceptable… It was pointed out to him that this was an internal committee of members who had been mandated by the general body to enquire into and submit its report and therefore it would (be) in his own interest to depose before it without any pre-conditions so that anything he may have to say in his defense could be enumerated freely by him, failing which the general body was very likely to take a view that he did not avail himself of the repeated opportunities provided to him out of fear or any possible guilt.” Yazdegardi refused to depose.
The next AGM was to be held on November 17, 2013 but as the date coincides with cricket legend Sachin Tendulkar’s farewell match, the meet is likely to be rescheduled.
Some members feel the case should be handed over to the police for investigation but others believe this may further sully PG’s reputation.