Battered Dalmiya picks up pieces for a legal battle

Kolkata, Dec 18 (UNI) Battered, beaten and banished Jagmohan Dalmiya refuses to throw the towel in as he readies for another legal war to get his name cleared.

Talking to UNI here today, the former BCCI president said, ''I am not going to take the allegations levelled against me lying down. I am looking at legal options. I will meet the press tomorrow and will give you all the details.'' However, he put forward certain queries like what were the other signitories doing while signing the papers of PILCOM accounts, who are there in the BCCI administration.

He also called this allegations 'malafide' and the decision a 'conspiracy'.

Meanwhile, BCCI Secretary Niranjan Shah talking to UNI made it clear that nobody is above the BCCI and its constitution, the vertict was the proof.

He also stated in as many words that Dalmiya will not be able to hold any post in any capacity either in BCCI or in any if its affiliated units. However, CAB constitution does not allow its president to be removed mid-term. This is going to throw up a new controversy in state association and parent body relations.

Mr Shah said if CAB does not act according to the BCCI resolution taken in the Special General Meeting in Jaipur, the state body will be 'penalised'. So Bengal cricket also seems to be in a state of flux.

The Special General Body of the BCCI, which met in Jaipur and heard him on the charges levelled against him on Saturday, adopted a resolution that expelled him from the Board and barred him from holding any position in any organs of the cricket body, including State associations.

The resolution was adopted 29-2 against him. The Cricket Association of Bengal, of which he is the president, and the National Cricket Club, Kolkata, of which also he is the head, voted in his support.

The 66-year-old Dalmiya, a former president of the International Cricket Council, has been given the right to appeal after three years for inclusion in the Board.

However, Mr Dalmiya, who has strongly denied the charges, said he had submitted a 46-page report, which the disciplinary committee did not even read. ''They did not even read it. They are all biased.

There is no misappropriation. It is only their misinterpretation,'' he said.

Mr Dalmiya was accused of producing forged documents and misappropriation of funds to the tune of crores of rupees from the PILCOM accounts, formed for the World Cup 1996 co-hosted by India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.

A master of realpolitik and a genius with money, Jagmohan Dalmiya is the man most responsible for turning the gentleman's game into a global sport of big money and a reach well beyond its traditional bastions.

He not only converted BCCI into a cash cow, but also showed new ways to ICC to earn and become rich.

Dalmiya joined the BCCI in 1979, and was one of the young turks who helped win the right to stage the World Cup in India in 1987.

from then on he never looked back.

UNI BA SAM PM1333