Muthiah claims senior politicians' backing

Board of Control for Cricket in India president A C Muthiah claims to have ensured the support of a clutch of senior politicians in his bid for another term against challenger Jagmohan Dalmiya.

He has pointed to the presence of former Maharashtra chief minister Sharad Pawar and former Bihar chief minister Laloo Prasad Yadav at a dinner in the capital Tuesday in support of his re-election bid.

Pawar is president of the Mumbai Cricket Association while Yadav was recently elected to head the Bihar body. Their support is considered crucial for Muthiah.

The BCCI will elect its new president at its annual general meeting at Madras on September 29 and 30.

"It was a very successful evening. The majority was with us last night," said a cricket board official who attended the dinner. "We are counting on, as of now, at least 18 sure votes. This number cannot go down, it can only go up," the official said.

The Muthiah group claims to have the support of 17 or 18 of the board's 31 voting members. However, two affiliated associations -- Goa and Jammu and Kashmir -- will not vote as they are involved in legal disputes.

Muthiah has served two terms and under BCCI rules can serve a third. He, however, faces a keen challenge from Dalmiya, whose term as president of the International Cricket Council ended last year. In normal course, Dalmiya would have been elected president next year, when it would have been the turn of East zone, which he represents, to head the board. However, he decided to throw his hat in early.

The country has five cricketing zones - East, West, North, South and Central. By rotation, each zone gets to nominate its candidate for the president's post for three one-year terms. However, this convention has been broken in the in the late 1980s when former Union minister Madhavrao Scindia of the Central zone successfully challenged East zone's B N Dutt, who had one more year to go.

According to sources, Dalmiya, who is facing charges in the grant of cricket telecast rights, was also planning to host a dinner for his supporters in Calcutta but he has now deferred it to Thursday, when he will host it in Madras.

Apart from Pawar and Yadav, the high-profile supporters of Muthiah are India Today editor Prabhu Chawla, vice-president of the Punjab Cricket Association and Gujarat Cricket Association president Narhari Amin, who was Monday elected to the state Assembly from Sabarmati.

Veteran Congress Party leader Kamal Nath, who is also garnering support for Muthiah, reportedly played a crucial role in Amin's nomination as the party candidate for the by-election.

One crucial vote will be that of Uttar Pradesh Cricket Association, hitherto a supporter of Dalmiya. However, Rajya Sabha member Rajiv Shukla, an executive committee member of the UPCA and who is likely to represent it at the Madras meeting, attended Muthiah's dinner.

"I will be astonished if Shukla does not vote for us now," a Muthiah supporter said.

If the UPCA does vote for Muthiah, it will be a big setback for Dalmiya. He is, however, banking heavily on the outspoken Kamal Morakra, the BCCI vice-president from West zone, who is reportedly working overtime to ensure a Dalmiya win.

--Indo-Asian News Service

Mail Cricket Editor