Khar Gym cancels cricketer Jemimah's membership, club president cries foul

Mumbai: Khar Gymkhana on Sunday terminated the playing membership of India women's team batter Jemimah Rodrigues following allegations that her father booked a club hall using her membership for religious activities. The decision was taken at an AGM on Sunday. Rodrigues, a Bandra resident who has played three Tests, 30 ODIs and 104 T20Is for India, became the first woman cricketer to be granted Khar Gymkhana membership in March 2023.

Jemimah and her father Ivan were unavailable for comment. A managing committee member said Ivan, linked to an evangelical group called Brother Manuel Ministries , booked the banquet hall for over a year for "meetings related to religious conversions".

Khar Gymkhana chief links ‘conversion’ row to managing committee polls later this month

Khar Gymkhana president Vivek Devnani denied the allegations and accused rivals of indulging in politics ahead of the club’s upcoming elections.



Confirming that India batter Jemimah Rodrigues’ membership at Khar Gymkhana was terminated, Devnani said the honorary three-year membership was revoked after a resolution passed at a general body meeting. “A resolution validly passed at such a meeting will always be given effect since the will of our members will always reign supreme,” he said.

However, he cautioned that a needless controversy was being created against Ivan and Jemimah as “Khar Gymkhana is scheduled to have its managing committee and trustee elections later this month. These allegations are being made with political motives. No evidence has been offered for any alleged wrongdoing. I would request and trust our wider body of members and the media to be cautious in relying on misrepresentations and falsehoods,” Devnani said.

Club members making the allegations are equally firm. Shiv Malhotra, a managing committee member and former vice-president, said, “Though Jemimah was granted the membership, her father exploited this privilege by booking the banquet hall for meetings related to religious conversions. From March 2023 to Nov 2024, the hall was predominantly booked on weekends, preventing other members from securing reservations for their events. This misuse extended to providing discounted rates, and in some cases, security deposit was waived,” he said.

He said this issue triggered a backlash from managing committee members. “The president was compelled to recover over Rs 3.5 lakh in arrears from Jemimah for 35 events. Rules of Khar Gymkhana explicitly prohibit use of its facilities for religious propagation,” he added. The action was taken following a motion moved by past president Nitin Gadekar, demanding accountability.

“Following discussion, general body unanimously decided to revoke Jemimah’s honorary playing membership due to misuse of privileges extended to her by the club,” Malhotra said.

Gadekar said, “How can our club president allow such a thing to happen without the managing committee being aware of any of this?” He said the president had waived the deposit to be paid when these events were booked in the name of Rodrigues. “I took it up at the AGM yesterday. Everyone agreed that while an inquiry must be initiated, Jemimah’s club membership must be terminated immediately,” he added.