DDA takes over Delhi club that was once the home of cricket – Hindustan Times

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. The cricket ground and the clubhouse. (HT Archive) On Friday, around 5am, the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) with ostensibly a 500-strong 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 Roshanana 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
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