For comeback man Jagmohan Dalmiya,enemy of enemy is a friend

Dalmiya’s support,it seems,stemmed from his deep-rooted antipathy for Pawar.

“Sharad Pawar was leading the campaign against Srinivasan,which was why Dalmiya refused to support the rival group. He can never forget how he was humiliated during the 2011 World Cup,when the ICC took the marquee India-England fixture away from Eden Gardens. Pawar was the ICC president but chose to be indifferent. Srinivasan,then the BCCI secretary,tried to bring back the match to Eden. But he too failed. Also,criminal charges were filed against Dalmiya in 2006 for alleged misappropriation of funds,when Pawar was the BCCI president,” said a CAB official. “So in this case,it was a simple equation of ‘an enemy of my enemy is my friend.’”

After the resignations of Sanjay Jagdale,Ajay Shirke and Rajiv Shukla,when Srinivasan’s position grew even shakier,he sought Dalmiya’s help to work out a compromise formula. The two had a telephone conversation on Saturday. On Sunday morning,ahead of the BCCI emergent working committee meeting,Srinivasan informed him that he would step aside temporarily and ask Dalmiya to take over. The president’s clout in the board ensured that he had his way. Dalmiya was back.

It was Dalmiya,during his stint as ICC president in 1996,who first tapped the marketing potential of Indian cricket. He took charge of the BCCI in 2001,defeating AC Muthiah in a bitterly contested presidential election. In 2004,it was his casting vote that stymied Pawar and gave Ranbir Singh Mahendra the BCCI presidency. But a year later,Pawar had his revenge,defeating Mahendra by a 20-11 margin.

In 2006,Pawar appointed a committee,headed by then BCCI treasurer Srinivasan,to investigate alleged misuse of PILCOM (Pakistan India Lanka Committee) funds during the 1996 World Cup. The BCCI then registered a complaint against Dalmiya with the Mumbai police,and later that year expelled him for misappropriation of funds,reportedly to the tune of Rs. 2.90 crore. Dalmiya had to leave the CAB as well.

He won back his right to contest the CAB elections in 2007,but the taint remained. A year later,the Mumbai police claimed to find evidence against him in the PILCOM case. He was arrested and released on bail. Dalmiya won the CAB elections,nonetheless. Two years later,in their grand tradition of forgive and forget,the BCCI,now headed by Shashank Manohar,withdrew their civil suit against him.

But Dalmiya’s tussle with Pawar continued. During the 2011 World Cup,the ICC — headed by Pawar — moved an India-England match out of Eden Gardens,saying that its renovation hadn’t been completed in time. Eden hosted three other matches during the tournament,but none of them featured India.

It was then that Biswarup Dey,a senior CAB official,told Dalmiya that his stormy relationship with the BCCI wasn’t helping Bengal cricket,and that he should look to patch things up. Dalmiya agreed,and reached out to Srinivasan,inviting him for his son’s wedding in 2011. All those efforts have paid off now. As he returned to Kolkata,BCCI chief once more,Dalmiya had come a full circle. “My honesty,” he said,“has been vindicated.”