'It was too fast to demand Srinivasan's resignation'

Soon after being made the head of an "interim" set-up to run the Cricket Board, former BCCI President Jagmohan Dalmiya has backed incumbent N Srinivasan and said calling the arrangement an eyewash was "uncharitable and unreasonable".

"I think the members felt it was too fast to demand his resignation," Dalmiya said after the Emergency Working Committee meeting in Chennai. 

"It was the most uncharitable and unreasonable comment you have made," Dalmiya said when asked by a reporter if the meeting was an eyewash.

Bowing to all-round pressure, Srinivasan agreed to "step aside" as BCCI President under a compromise formula that brought back former Chief Dalmiya as head of a four-member "interim arrangement" to run the Board, more than a fortnight after the spot-fixing scandal rocked Indian cricket. 

Dalmiya said nobody in the committee asked for the beleaguered President's resignation. 

"Nobody had asked for his resignation. I can say nobody came forward. It was unnecessary, like going after a punching bag," the CAB President said. 

He also refused to call the entire arrangement a compromise. "It is the working committee which felt that way. There was no compromise."

He agreed that the reputation of Indian cricket has taken a hit. 

"As far as cricket is concerned, there are lot of problems and they need to be cleared. Undoubtedly, everything needs to be brought above the board."  

Former Cricket Board Secretary Sanjay Jagdale and Treasurer Ajay Shirke today made it clear they have no intention of returning to the BCCI despite being requested by the working committee members to reconsider their decision to resign. 

"If they (Jagdale and Shirke) come back they will discharge their duties as secretary and treasurer. If they do not, then the responsibility of discharging the duties will be on me." 

Talking further about the controversies surrounding Indian cricket, he said, "I am not going to say who is right or who is wrong, that is not my job. I won't overstep."