Aam Aadmi Party asks Sachin Tendulkar not to associate with MCA's Kandivali Club

Days after the Mumbai Cricket Association decided to name its Kandivali Club after master blaster Sachin Tendulkar, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) asked the star batsman not to associate himself with the proposal.

"The AAP is distressed with Sachin Tendulkar's association with MCA's Kandivli Club which is mired in corruption. AAP Mumbai Committee members delivered Maharashtra Convenor Anjali Damania's letter to Sachin Tendulkar's residence requesting him to not smear his name with this shameful association," a party release said.

Damania wrote to Tendulkar: "You are India's biggest icon, every Indian's heart beats for you and you are the symbol of our aspirations and our pride.

"It is with extreme disappointment we've learned that your name will be associated with the MCA Club in Kandivali which is a symbol of shameless loot by politicians of national resource, a symbol of how even the smallest joys of the poor are looted to benefit already fat purses. "Your association with this club will shake the very foundations of whatever little hope that is left in the nation," she said.

"Aam Aadmi Party entreats you to not associate your blessed name with the MCA club which has blatantly stolen a playground of Mumbai's children and made it into a swank club for the rich and famous," she wrote.

"A Mumbaiker yourself, you know how our children are forced to play cricket in gullies, incurring the wrath of many broken windows. Almost all playgrounds have been stolen by politicians who make swank facilities with prohibitive entry costs.

"We have nothing against luxurious clubs - but they should be made on commercial land, not land stolen from our children," she said, adding, that the AAP had also filed a PIL against the club.