Amit Bhandari, who is currently chairman of the Senior Selection Committee of Delhi District Cricket Association (DDCA) is also a former Indian player and represented India in 2 ODIs. Amit was assaulted by a group of men during the Under-23 trials which were taking place at St. Stephens ground. He sustained injuries on head and ears and was immediately taken to a nearby hospital in Civil Lines for treatment.Thankfully the injuries were not serious and he was discharged soon.
Amit was watching a warm-up game being played by the Delhi team in their preparation for Syed Mushtaq Ali tournament. It was during that time when two men approached Amit and had a heated argument. Soon 15 other men came in with hockey sticks, cricket bats and iron rods. A man slapped Amit and then others started mauling him. When other players and DDCA officials tried to intervene they were asked to stay behind otherwise they would also be beaten up.
Rajat Sharma, the president of DDCA soon assured that action will be taken against the culprits. A day after, Police nabbed the main accused Anuj Dedha an U-23 cricketer who physically assaulted Amit for not being selected in the state Under-23 team. Anuj and his brother were the main accused who brought a group of 15 men to beat Amit. The DDCA imposed a life ban on Anuj Dedha. He was in Police custody and the quantum of punishment was still to be decided.
Many former cricketers including Virendra Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir and Bishan Singh Bedi condemned the incident and called for swift and stringent action against the culprits.Sehwag described the incident as “new low” while Gautam personally looked into the matter and called for a life ban on the player. Bishan Singh Bedi also mentioned in his tweet that violence will not be tolerated. We hope that such incidents are avoided in future.
