It’s only been a few days since he returned to power at the Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB), and Jagmohan Dalmiya has already started work on the new challenges ahead of him. In a candid chat with The Indian Express, the 68-year old administrator spoke on a variety of issues, ranging from his fight against the BCCI, to the advent of Twenty20 cricket. Excerpts:•Starting afresh as CAB president, what are your immediate challenges?• My top priority is to bring back Bengal cricket to where it belonged. We all know Bengal lost its Elite Group status in the Ranji Trophy last season. So I have to work out things to pull Bengal out of the Plate Division. For this, I have specific plans in mind but I want to discuss them with the CAB working committee first.•How significant is this comeback ?• This comeback goes back to July 20, 2007, when the court cleared me of all charges. Members in the Maidan flocked to me and wanted me to contest again but it was much too late — only 10 days were left for the elections — to prepare for the CAB elections. So, I didn’t file my nomination then. I can’t just say ‘thank you very much for your support’ and walk away from all this just because I got my name cleared. I had to give back to the state association what it had given me. After all, the CAB has been my platform for everything — I could reach the ICC because of my state body. I am obliged to give something back to them.•Looking back at your being sidelined by the BCCI and battling court cases, how tiring was it all?• A lot of charges were made against me; one after another, they (BCCI) tried to malign me with false charges. I had two options — either fight it out, or plain give up. I made up my mind that I would fight it out and get my name cleared of all those charges. That’s because what was at stake was not just my own name, but the image and standing of my family members, and all my business associates. And we all saw what happened after that. The truth always prevails, and it did in my case as well.•Now that you are back, a lot of debate is on over how the BCCI will deal with the CAB.• I know that. Look, there are two facades of cricket administration — collective and individual. At the collective level, the CAB doesn’t deserve to suffer because of my relationship with the Board. My message to them (BCCI) is — spare the CAB. Leave the state association alone. As the CAB president, I believe all state associations should cooperate with and listen to the Board. But at an individual level, they are welcome to fight me. It is nothing new to me anyway. If they want to take me on, let’s see, I have no issues.•What do you make of IPL?• I followed the new Twenty20 competition, and as we all know, the IPL has been an amazing success. I believe in this idea —any format of the game that brings a lot of success should always be continued, it’s a basic rule.
