Jagmohan Dalmiya Returns as BCCI President

mangaloretoday.com/NDTV

Mumbaiu, Maech 1: Veteran official Jagmohan Dalmiya has been elected head of Indian cricket’s governing body, replacing the sport’s world supremo Narayanaswami Srinivasan following a corruption scandal. This is the second term for the Cricket Association of Bengal president. Anurag Thakur, who was joint-secretary before has become the new secretary after edging out Sanjay Patel 15-14.

In other positions, TC Matthews was elected one of the five vice-presidents, while Amitabh Chaudhary (Jharkhand) and Anirudh Chaudhary (Haryana) were elected joint-secretary and Treasurer respectively.

 

Amitabh won a closely contested fight against Chetan Desai and only sailed through after chairman Shivlal Yadav’s casting vote. Anirudh defeated Rajeev Shukla, who was a BCCI vice-president from the central zone. Both Amitabh and Anirudh are Srinivasan loyalists. Effectively, Srinivasan’s camp has wrested most of the top positions from the Sharad Pawar camp.

Dalmiya, a former head of the International Cricket Council, emerged as the front-runner amid backroom negotiations for votes at elections on Monday for the BCCI.

Dalmiya, 74, was the "consensus candidate" among rival factions for BCCI president, a position he held a decade ago.

The Supreme Court barred Srinivasan from standing as a candidate for BCCI chief, although he can cast his vote, following its probe into a betting and fixing scandal surrounding the Indian Premier League (IPL).

The court in January found Srinivasan guilty of a conflict of interest for having commercial dealings in the sport by owning an IPL franchise while he was also BCCI head.

Srinivasan is the current International Cricket Council (ICC) chief. Dalmiya served as ICC president for three years from 1997 to 2000.

Dalmiya was ousted by rivals as BCCI chief in 2005 after a more than decade-long reign over the powerful and faction-ridden board.

The 74-year-old, who hails from Kolkata, is credited with helping to turn the game into a lucrative global sport. He twice brought the World Cup to the Indian sub-continent, in 1987 and 1996.