The Hindu : Sport : Pawar appeared to be in command

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Sunday, Sep 25, 2005

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Pawar appeared to be in command

G. Viswanath

Signs of cracks in the Dalmiya camp

MUMBAI: : The feud cannot go on forever. This was the message that came out of the Board of Control for Cricket in India's 76th AGM that wound up after considering a routine and unexciting matter on the agenda at Kolkata.

But many hours before the stated `amicable adjournment' was arrived at, authoritative sources revealed that cracks in the Jagmohan Dalmiya group had become wide with a faction not at all inclined to boycotting the meeting on Friday because the BCCI President Ranbir Singh Mahendra had declared the AGM adjourned sine die.

It's understood that the stand taken by Uttar Pradesh's Jyoti Bajpai and the BCCI secretary S.K. Nair forced Dalmiya & Co. to attend the meeting convened at 10 a.m.

On Thursday Mahendra had, in fact, said that the AGM will not take place.

For two full days 31 representatives of the BCCI appeared to be in cut-throat competition. On the face of it the ballot box was the target for a large group displaying pent-up emotions, with Dalmiya determined to hold his flock and Sharad Pawar keen and enthusiastic to provide the impetus for change.

Those in the Pawar bandwagon tried to force a division when Mahendra declared the AGM adjourned sine die on day one. The Pawar group, reportedly 18 in all, did not succeed, but decided to stay put at the venue arguing that the president's ruling was against the Law of Meetings.

For two days a few members from both groups were the biggest of enemies. Rajasthan's Lalit Mody was livid after a resolution was adopted to adjourn the meeting.

According to many members, Mr. Pawar was cool, but firm. He was in full grasp of the pulse of the voters and confident of sailing through in the event of an election.

Initially a senior member of the BCCI had predicted a 16-15 win for either Pawar or Mahendra, but after the first adjournment, a clear picture began to emerge with Pawar's tally going well over the halfway mark according to the same official.

A staunch supporter of Dalmiya, Andhra's Venkat Rao was replaced by K.V. Rao after the first adjournment on Thursday. Credible information doing the rounds was that Assam's Gautam Roy and Orissa's Ashish Behera too had switched allegiance to Pawar.

Dalmiya must have felt the harsh reality when Jyoti Bajpai, his long-time friend, told him that he's not keen to continue as treasurer of the BCCI. This was the first hint that even U.P. was lost to Pawar, whose claim of having sufficient numbers was not off the mark.

This is precisely the reason some of his supporters were wondering why he agreed to Dalmiya's proposal. No one knows what transpired between Dalmiya, Pawar, Bindra and Shashank Manohar before the resolution was moved to adjourn the AGM.

Further meetings between the rival groups will be held to thrash out differences.

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