'Let Dalmiya become patron-in-chief'

Within hours of the Board of Control for Cricket in India conceding that Jagmohan Dalmiya continued to function as its President despite election of Ranbir Singh Mahindra to the post, his counsel Sidharth Shanker Ray made an emotional plea to the Supreme Court to allow his client to become the Patron-in-Chief of the Board as he was a man with the "Midas touch".

It was a day of new facts to stumble out of the cupboard of the BCCI in the Supreme Court as a Bench comprising Justice N Santosh Hegde and Justice S B Sinha began hearing on the Board petition challenging a Madras High Court order over the controversial election of the new Board members.

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In the morning, BCCI counsel A M Singhvi said that as the September 28/29 AGM of the Board had not concluded but adjourned on the basis of a Chennai Civil Court order, the old Board headed by Dalmiya continued to function.

"Give us an order today for conclusion of the AGM, and Dalmiya would step down tomorrow as the BCCI President vacating the post for the newly elected President," Singhvi said in a bid to prove the bonafide of Dalmiya.

But, the best was to come from Ray.

Ray did not dwell much on the legal arguments. He only stressed on the "Midas touch" of Dalmiya asserting that whatever he touched generated huge amounts of money.

He recounted how from a Board with a bank balance of mere 23 lakh in 1983 when Dalmiya became its secretary, it has grown to a cash-rich body with over Rs 100 crore in its kitty.

Ray said Dalmiya was the first Asian to become the ICC president (in 1997) and his 'Midas touch' came into play as the Council's money grew from a mere 16,000 pounds to a whopping 14 million pounds.

Reeling off statistics on his achievements as the BCCI President, Ray said it was Dalmiya who stood like a rock between the ICC and the Indian players, when the latter were threatened with claims of damages to the tune of 15 million dollars for an alleged breach of Players Terms prior to the 2003 World Cup.

"He fought with the ICC and made it accept the Players Terms as per BCCI decision and the players did not have to suffer loss of about 15 million dollars," the counsel said.

Now, Dalmiya has brought down the ICC claim against BCCI on the same issue from a whopping 47 million dollars to a nearly zero claim situation, Ray said, but cautioned that GCC, the commercial arm of ICC, had not yet withdrawn the claim.

"There is every likelihood of the case being filed in the Court of Arbitration for Sports, Lausanne, Switzerland, as the ICC's Agreement with GCC is upto 2007," he said and added that this is the reason why Dalmiya should be made the patron-in-chief so that he could represent BCCI at the ICC meeting.

"New contracts will be renegotiated in 2005 and it is of utmost importance that BCCI is represented by someone who is well versed with the matter. Dalmiya is the obvious choice," he said.

Quoting Shakespeare, he hinted at the hand of one of the foreign players behind the present controversy to oust Dalmiya and said "the green eyed monster" was lurking to hurt Indian cricket.