Dalmiya misses out on a plum post

Jagmohan Dalmiya, interim chief of the Indian cricket board who who bailed it out during a crisis period, was left without any plum post and had to be satisfied with being only the chairman of the North East Development Committee at the board's Annual General Meeting (AGM) here Sunday.

At the AGM of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) here Sunday, Dalmiya's name was doing the rounds for the post of Indian Premier League (IPL) chairman, which post finally went to Ranjib Biswal.

Sources told IANS that it was Dalmiya's age that went against his appointment as the IPL chairman. Dalmiya, 73, was the given the charge to promote the game in the northeastern states.

The appointment of Biswal as the IPL chairman was severely protested by the Dalmiya-headed Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB). The only key position that went to the CAB was that Chitrak Mitra retained his seat as the vice-president.

While Dalmiya, a former BCCI and International Cricket Council (ICC) president, missed out on a plum post, his three junior colleagues in the CAB found places in other important committees.

CAB joint secretaries Subir Ganguly and Sujan Mukherjee were named in the IPL governing council and NCA sub-committees while treasurer Biswarup Dey was promoted from the NCA sub-committee to the finance committee.

A top office-bearer in the BCCI told IANS that it was Srinivasan's manouvre to keep out Dalmiya.

"Srinivasan was the man who was instrumental in banning Dalmiya from the BCCI. Srinivasan knew that giving any more power to Dalmiya could have spelt doom for him in future," the official said on the condition of anonymity.

Dalmiya took over as the interim chief of the BCCI in June after Srinivasan had to step aside as the board president after his son-in-law Gurunath Meiyappan was arrested by Mumbai police on charges of betting after the spot-fixing scandal broke out in the Indian Premier League (IPL). Dalmiya ensured smooth sailing for the BCCI during its most troubled times.