No witch-hunt against Dalmiya or CAB: Bindra

New Delhi, July 24 (UNI) Asserting that BCCI has not started a witch-hunt against either Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB) or its President Jagmohan Dalmiya, senior board official I S Bindra rubbished allegations from his friend-turned-foe that Punjab Cricket Association (PCA) used its clout for Dinesh Mongia's return to Team India.

Replying to Mr Dalmiya's claims that the PCA used its clout in the board to accommodate Dinesh Mongia in Team India for next month's tri-series, Mr Bindra said he would have laughed off the allegations but could not ignore the ''slanderous insinuations'' of his former friend ''Jaggu''.

In the PCA website, Mr Bindra pooh-poohed the allegation and said, ''My conscience is clear as I have never ever influenced any player's selection even when I was Board president.'' Taking the opportunity to launch a scathing counter-attack, the PCA chief said instead of ''mending his (Mr Dalmiya) style of functioning, he continues to use the same old dirty trick of first torpedoing the boat by drilling a hole and then make it look like a sabotage by the pirates.'' A key functionary in the current regime, Mr Bindra asserted the board didn't have an axe to grind on Mr Dalmiya or the CAB.

''I would like to assure Jaggu that Team Pawar has no time to think of a witch-hunt against anyone, let alone him or the CAB, as much of its time is taken up by huge workload pertaining to the development of the game, welfare of the former and present players, 2011 World Cup and preparing the state associations for it,'' he said.

Taking a dig at the former BCCI President, Mr Bindra said the current regime ''...will not stoop to his level of denying his opponents matches or keeping competent people out when it comes to rewarding them for their work.'' Claiming that in fact it was PCA and he who were targeted by Mr Dalmiya during his tenure at the helms of BCCI. Mr Bindra alleged, ''To undermine my position and wreck the PCA, he had adopted such mean tactics that I can't narrate them at any decent forum.

''Let him touch his heart and say he had no hand in instituting a CBI probe into the construction of the Mohali Stadium with the help of a friend of his global business partner during a short-lived Union government,'' he said.

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