Dalmiya146;s Dilemma

So the baiting of Ravi Shastri on prime-time television seemed certain to wind him up, draw a sharp response. 8216;8216;Mr Jagmohan Dalmiya, if you are watching, this is for you8217;8217;, Shastri said during the telecast of the Headingley Test. 8216;8216;If you don8217;t have the guts to talk to me, talk to the Indian players, they want a dialogue with you8230;8217;8217;

Thousands of miles away in India, Dalmiya was speaking to The Indian Express over the phone with little trace of being wound up; indeed, little trace of any emotion in his voice. The feisty spark had been replaced by a weariness; bordering, atypically, on the uncertain. 8216;8216;You tell me what to do8217;8217; is all he could bring himself to say.

What happened to Mr Accountability? Is he showing signs of wearing down? Has he run out of ideas? Why is this most pro-active businessman suddenly displaying all the qualities of a dormouse, able neither to rage against the ICC nor rouse his players?

8216;8216;It8217;s more than what meets the eye8217;8217;, says Shastri. 8216;8216;If he was serious about solving the crisis, Dalmiya should have flown to England and spoken to the players. Instead he has been pressurising the players into signing the contracts, and saying at the same time that he has a sympathetic ear for the players. He has sympathy for the players but will push them into a well.8217;8217;

Dalmiya believes this isn8217;t a players-vs-BCCI fight but is directly related to the ICC. He8217;s even had a war of words with his predecessor A C Muthiah who, he said, was responsible for signing the contract. Two days later, however, Muthiah gathered his facts and threw up some more. 8216;8216;When the contract was signed by me in 2000, this particular clause controversial one-month-before and after Ambush Marketing wasn8217;t there. Perhaps it was included afterwards,8217;8217; he says.

Muthiah won that match by default; Dalmiya, who may well be in the right, hasn8217;t bothered to come out and establish it.

Why is Dalmiya so desperately keen on the Champions Trophy going off without a hitch? One reason could be money, his area of expertise. As ICC chief, Dalmiya had passed a resolution that allots 50 per cent of all profits from Champions Trophy meets to the Asian Cricket Fund, of which he is the life president. The Nairobi meet two years ago generated about 3 million for the ACF; the figure at this year8217;s event is likely to be higher. IF the stars play, of course.

Another reason why Dalmiya is reluctant to push the envelope with the ICC is his friend Ehsan Mani. He8217;s the chairman of ICC8217;s Finance and Marketing Committee; and the man responsible for choosing the world body8217;s sponsors. Ergo, any loss of face for Mani would be a loss of face for Dalmiya too.

There8217;s more to it than friendship, of course. Mani is the ICC8217;s president-in-waiting; in him, Dalmiya sees his last hope of settling scores with his favourite bugbear.

Ah, the ICC. It8217;s the defining symbol in Dalmiya8217;s professional life, the institution he has battled all along, the engine that gets him going. There8217;s a point of view in Indian cricket that Dalmiya8217;s often-stated cause of being a players8217; president is little more than a tool for him to wage his wars with Lord8217;s. The Mike Denness affair 8212; when the match referee punished half the Indian team, including captain Saurav Ganguly and Sachin Tendulkar 8212;in South Africa last year hurtled madly from a local controversy to one that almost saw the game split on racial lines.

It8217;s that same ICC that has come back to haunt him. Dalmiya8217;s pre-eminence in world cricket has always stemmed from the fact that he controlled Asia, which had all the money. Now, though, the ICC have an alternate source of funding: Rupert Murdoch, a White Man to boot. Murdoch8217;s News Corp has given the ICC not just 550 million but an effective tool to counter the upstart Indian.

There8217;s also the guilt factor. It8217;s a fact that Dalmiya became BCCI chief last September; it8217;s also a fact that he first took up the contracts issue with the ICC on June 22 this year, nine months after he became president. And then informed the players about the problem on July 13, the day of the NatWest Trophy final.

8216;8216;Had he told us earlier, we8217;d have got more time to consult our agents or lawyers but Dalmiya left us with little option than to say no to the contract8217;8217;, a senior member of the Indian side said. 8216;8216;Only because of him we lost valuable time.8217;8217;

The BCCI8217;s official version states that the Board found it premature to caution cricketers when the deal was signed by Muthiah in May 2001. 8216;8216;At that time nobody could have predicted which cricketers would figure in the Indian team in late 2002. The Board couldn8217;t have possibly informed all first class cricketers in anticipation8217;8217;, argues a former Board member.

Also, sources in Dalmiya8217;s office say former Muthiah didn8217;t hand over the relevant files when quitting office. Not the most convincing of arguments, and wisely not one peddled to the public at large.

Compounding the mistake, many feel, was the selection of a B-team, effectively holding a gun to the seniors8217; heads. The players8217; very obvious resentment of this tactic has caused relations between the two to break, a big public fall for the players8217; president. 8216;8216;The myth that is Dalmiya stands the risk of being exposed in world cricket8217;8217;, a former BCCI official says.

Give the players more time, counsels Sunil Gavaskar, a compromise will be found. 8216;8216;No player wants to sit out of international tournaments. The need is for everybody 8212; players and the BCCI president or secretary 8212; to sit across a table and thrash out their differences.8217;8217;

Why isn8217;t Dalmiya doing that? Maybe it8217;s the Ravi Shastri factor; the two former friends have fallen out, and the only barbs from Dalmiya in recent days have been directed at the former India captain. The players, Dalmiya says, have 8216;8216;lost their bargaining power because of misguidance. I told them to listen to me, I have ruled the ICC, I know them inside out and if they sign for the Champions Trophy, I will get them a better deal for the coming ICC events. But they thought I was their enemy. Now see, Australia and England are signing the contracts and soon you see the ICC will withdraw their offer of negotiations with the Indians.8217;8217;

In the world of Indian cricket, Dalmiya is unique. Not merely for his achievements but also for the manner in which they8217;ve been accomplished. Who, after all, can forget his election as BCCI chief last year, when he was written off in the wake of match-fixing and TV rights allegations? This is a man who8217;s had more comebacks than Amitabh Bachchan. Who8217;s betting against one more?