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Life after Lele

News agency stories indicate that Jaywant Lele, secretary of the Board of Control for Cricket in India, is exploring legal action against Rediff On The Net on the basis of the interview our correspondent Faisal Shariff, had done with Lele in New Delhi last week.

Rediff stands by the story.

This, in the words of Faisal Shariff, is what happened:

It was around noon when I walked into the Taj Palace Intercontinental, New Delhi, on November 16, 1999. The lobby was crowded with fans seeking autographs from the Indian cricketers, some of whom had returned from practice. Debashish Mohanty and Ajit Agarkar were at the entrance obliging fans, as I walked in.

I spotted Jaywant Lele, executive secretary of the BCCI, alighting from the elevator. As I walked towards him, he was arguing with someone who wanted passes for the final ODI of the India-New Zealand series, which was scheduled to be played at the Ferozeshah Kotla the next morning.

I went up to Lele and after handing over my visiting card -- I have met Lele several times in the past and on each occasion, gone through the same ritual -- I asked for an interview.

Lele told me he was waiting for Kapil Dev, and that he would leave as soon as he had finished talking to the Indian coach. "Why do you want to interview me? Let us do it in the evening," he told me.

I pointed out that in the evening he would be busy with the Castrol Cricketer of the Year Awards function, and that right now might be a better time. "No one has invited me to the function. But anyway…come sit," he said. He then sat on a sofa set against the wall, I sat on the adjacent one.

On the table before us, he laid down his room keys, his mobile phone, and an envelope which, in course of our conversation, I discovered contained passes to the Ferozeshah Kotla pavilion for the next day's game.

"Can I use the tape?" I inquired.

"What do you need the tape for? Just ask me," was his response.

Sitting beside us was a person who said he was an ex-serviceman, and who kept interrupting us from time to time.

I asked the questions, as in the interview, and Lele responded as set out.

In between, Purushottam Rungta, president of the Rajasthan Cricket Association, strolled up, sat next to us and asked Lele what he was doing there. Lele told Rungta that he was waiting for Kapil Dev who, Lele said, wanted to organise a benefit match in Mumbai on November 21 towards a relief fund for victims of the Orissa cyclone.

At this point, I asked Rungta a few questions as well, and he responded as stated in our published interview.

A member of the Star News camera crew, which was in the lobby at the time, came up and asked Lele if he could, on camera, say that Srinath had been included in the side for the final ODI in place of the injured Jadeja.

When Lele agreed, the camera crew asked Lele to shift to the sofa I had been sitting on. In turn, I shifted over to the place Lele had occupied till then. Once the crew recorded their sound-bite and left, we continued the conversation. Rungta, who had wandered away during that interlude with the Star News crew, also returned at this point, and Lele asked him for two passes to the stadium.

Since Lele did not permit me to record the interview, I had taken notes throughout. The interview, as I wrote it, is a faithful depiction of the conversation, barring only that I filtered out certain expletives the BCCI secretary used from time to time, when referring to various members of the team.

That is Faisal's story.

This is the full interview, as written and published on our site.

We stand by the story, and the reporter who filed it.

Mail Faisal Shariff