A day after sealing his return to active cricket administration with a landslide victory in the Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB) elections, Jagmohan Dalmiya “extended his hand in friendship” to the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), saying he didn’t want Bengal cricket to suffer because of his personal battle with members of the current regime.“Now that I am back, there is a lot of apprehension about the CAB’s relationship with the BCCI. There are two types of issues here — collective and personal,” Dalmiya told reporters. “Collectively, we want to tell the BCCI, please don’t let the CAB suffer. In fact, I will extend my hand in friendship to the Board.”Dalmiya has shared a tumultuous relationship with Sharad Pawar & Co. After the current regime came into power, they managed to drive Dalmiya right off the radar, taking him to court over embezzlement charges and taking him completely out of the equation. Sources say that the board is now desperately trying to find ways to put the former BCCI and International Cricket Council (ICC) president on a tight leash, with efforts already on to reopen an old dispute involving him over the Tamil Nadu Societies Registration Act in Chennai.The BCCI is especially uneasy over the fact that, now that Dalmiya’s is back, he will be running the show during the Indian Premier League’s Kolkata-leg next year. But asked if there will be problems during the IPL, Dalmiya played down the issue: “Look, the IPL has been an amazing success in its first season. I don’t think anybody is, or will be, against the IPL anywhere. But we want to run it properly and systematically.”Dalmiya’s win brought back memories of the summer of 2006 when he had defeated the combined might of the city police chief, the state machinery, the BCCI and even local hero Sourav Ganguly. Asked to compare the two elections, Dalmiya said: “The earlier one was for power. This one is for cricket.”And as the obvious question about his stand-off with Ganguly cropped up — there was talk that the former India captain would get sidelined by such a result — Dalmiya played with a straight bat. “Please think positive. This is a non-issue, a dead issue.”
