MR JAGMOHAN DALMIYA was ruling his kingdom (read Cricket Association of Bengal or CAB) happily for 14 long years without any noteworthy opposition. From the safety of his kingdom he spearheaded his career as a cricket administrator to the higher echelons of power viz. the Board of Cricket Control in India (BCCI) and the International Cricket Committee (ICC). During all this time Mr Jagmohan Dalmiya put his authoritative and manipulative nature to its best use along with a lot of power tactics. In this personal journey of seeking power in the world of cricket administration, Mr Dalmiya made a lot of enemies and a lot friends turned into foes. One of the few prominent ones was Mr I.S. Bindra.
Mr Dalmiya also rubbed Mr Sharad Pawar on the wrong side to win the BCCI elections in 2004. But Mr Pawar who has been in Indian politics long enough had other plans. The first alarm bell rang when Mr Dalmiya lost the BCCI election last year to Mr Pawar, who avenged the defeat of the previous year with the power equations changing in his favour at the Centre. The election was fought bitterly and left Mr Dalmiya high and dry. In a very emotional state Mr Dalmiya said ‘mere pass Eden hai’ (I still have Eden Gardens) which had the connotations of the famous Hindi movie dialogue from Deewar. By saying this he meant he still holds the key to the richest sports body in the country that is CAB.
But that was not to be. Mr Dalmiya who looked pretty confident on his home turf suddenly found himself groping for cover. Even when Mr Prasun Mukherjee and a few others thought of putting an opposition to the ruling camp, Dalmiya & Co. had a quiet laugh. But that suddenly changed into worry and then into a frantic race to get the correct numbers.
What had changed? A lot of things did. One, the chief minister of the state of whose cricket board he was the president came up against him in public. The reason apparently was the betterment of the state of cricket in the state. But insiders say that Mr Dalmiya’s total hold on the cricket body drew the CM’s ire. Incidentally, the CAB being a very rich organisation, it can be a good source of donations for the state’s ruling party. But the controversy kicked off when Mr Jyoti Basu, former chief minister and CPM Politburo member commented against his party comrade and said that the government should not interfere in the affairs of an autonomous sports body like the CAB. But was this the real reason Mr Basu? CAB has always been a heavily politicised body and politicians have always been keen to comment on its doings. Union Railways Minister, Mr Lalu Prasad Yadav, did not have any qualms about extending his open support to Mr Dalmiya. So, why is this sudden bestowal of political immunity to CAB? The reasons for Mr Basu’s comments can only be found beyond cricket.
The rivalry between Mr Basu and Mr Buddhadeb Bhattacharya goes back to the time when Mr Bhattacharya supposedly foiled the candidature of Mr Basu as the Prime Minister of India. The conflict continued within the party as Mr Bhattacharya led a crusade against party hardliners to liberalise party policies to lure big investments for the state. One major task took up by Mr Bhattacharya in order to achieve this was to bring discipline into the party’s labour union CITU. Mr Basu who holds a key position in CITU was left red-faced. This little tussle of words once again demonstrated the rift within the party, which is coming up in the open at every occasion. And we thought that this was about cricket!
The second jolt that the Dalmiya camp received was from Mr Dalmiya’s protégé, Bengal’s poster boy in cricket, Sourav Ganguly. Sourav apparently wrote an e-mail, indirectly accusing Mr Dalmiya for ruining the careers of cricket players. It’s a matter of debate now that whether Sourav’s career was made or unmade by Mr Dalmiya. But not a long time ago Sourav, when faced with any crisis – be it a trouble with match referees (which Sourav did as a habit) or with the selectors – placed a 033 (read Mr Dalmiya) call in no time. And he got justice. So why would he ruin the career that helped build his own? Though the Greg Chappell mail leak to BCCI and the non-appearance of Sourav at the selectors’ meet (apparently according to the wishes of Mr Dalmiya) in Mohali was a definite setback to his career. But the most difficult task is now to stick these accusations to Mr Dalmiya.
The former Indian captain has a rather colossal mission to undertake if he wants to prove that Mr Dalmiya and not his own form was responsible for the present shape of his career. Especially, after his not-so-good performance in the county season wherein he played for Northamptonshire. Incidentally, Mr Dalmiya or his camp could not believe that Sourav could have written this e-mail and they maintained for quite awhile that this was a sabotage. Why did such an unbelievable thing happen? Only time will tell truth. But hazarding an educated guess should not be difficult.
With Mr Dalmiya not being in any position to manipulate the BCCI and the situation getting worse in CAB, this could have well been a last ditch effort by the Prince of Kolkata to book a place in Team India by making the Pawar camp happy. But his form might be unable to clinch the deal. It also could have been a perfect time for retribution for allegedly misleading him and ruining his career (as he thinks), with Mr Dalmiya for the first time facing any serious threat to his crown.
All this did not help much and Mr Dalmiya won. The margin would have been narrow but in a game where the winner takes all, it does not matter much. Furthermore, this fiasco with Mr Dalmiya who was once touted to be Sourav’s godfather has not helped the maharaj’s cause at all.Rather the general view is that Sourav is an opportunist. And we are not talking about Mumbai, Delhi or the rest of India. The analysis comes from the ubiquitous addas (informal chat sessions) in his home city, Kolkata. Be it public transport, offices, malls or the mundane get-together of friends, the message is loud and clear. ‘You don’t ditch your benefactor like this.’ Paradoxically, this is the same city that erupted when Sourav was thrown out Team India. It burnt effigies of anyone who could be held responsible for it. But now things have changed.
Sourav is one of the best players that India had and probably the only star in Bengal cricket. But all the controversy that was created, when he was left out of the Indian cricket team, has tarnished his image. He could have done without engaging in such dirty politics and scarring his image further.
This ignominy has thrown to light a lot of things to ponder over. The first and foremost is the extent to which politics has entered into everything. This creates distrust in most spectators’ minds. Public scepticism will not be great for the game of cricket. It already has got enough vices like match fixing and satta (betting), to name a few. Now, the last one would expect is to guess which political party was behind a particular defeat.
Secondly, and most importantly, is the sorry state of cricket. The storm over the CAB elections led the officials to forget that they are supposed to organise championships for the under-13 and under-15 categories. A cricket academy for the state was planned a long time ago but the plan is yet to see the light of day. All this has left several aspiring cricketers dreary-eyed, not to say anything of the state morale of the present cricketers. It’s high time that everyone comes together shedding their differences and try to reinforce the game that has given them the platform where they stand today. Is anybody listening?
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