Jagmohan Dalmiya caused a flutter at the working committee meeting of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) which met in Mumbai on Monday.
The former BCCI president launched a broadside against the International Cricket Council (ICC) and said the Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB), of which he is the president, was unfairly treated by the world body.
He was particularly peeved that the ICC gave extra time to the Mumbai Cricket Association to complete the renovation work of the Wankhede Stadium while CAB was given an unfair treatment on its renovation of the Eden Gardens. The CAB, it may be noted, lost out on hosting India-England match on February 27.
Dalmiya insisted that his points be mentioned in the minutes of the working committee. BCCI president Shashank Manohar tried
to convince him of the futility of raising the issue but the
former ICC chief insisted that his objection be minuted. Manohar agreed to take his comments on record.
The working committee, meanwhile, has amended the qualification norms for a senior selector. As per the new rule, an international cricketer can be eligible to be a selector, five years after his retirement. Earlier, the cooling off period used to be 10 years. For a junior selector, there is no cooling off period. He can be a selector straight away after his retirement.
There were, however, no formal discussions on the Indian team’s performance in the on-going series against England, who India trail 0-3 in the series. It was felt that Manohar and secretary N Srinivasan should take up the matter at the appropriate level.
“We have several cricketers who can become good selectors. But we are not able to rope them in because we have to wait for 10 years. Now, we will have a wider pool of eligible candidates to become national selectors,” the official said.
It was also decided that subsidies to state associations from television rights should be raised from existing Rs23 crore to Rs27 crore. The working committee is also looking into a request by Kochi IPL franchise to shift their base from Kochi to Ahmedabad.
