Dalmiya makes fresh bid for ICC chair

One decision arrived at by the Board of Control for Cricket in India during its meeting earlier this week in Bombay was that it would re-nominate Jagmohan Dalmiya for the post of chairman of the International Cricket Council.

And thus a row that erupted last July, when Dalmiya made his first bid, seems set to resume.

Basically, the rule as existing at the time was that each of the nine Test-playing nations had two votes, while each associate member of the ICC had one. And a simple majority was sufficient to decide the issue.

That rule, however, gave Dalmiya too good a chance to win. While England, Australia, South Africa, New Zealand and the West Indies opted to side with Australian candidate Malcolm Gray (South Africa's Kris Mackerduj earlier withdrew from the contest to make it a two-horse race), Dalmiya had besides the Indian vote, also the support of Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe, plus 19 out of 22 votes from the associate countries.

This made him a shoo-in for the chairmanship, and realising this, then ICC chairman Sir Clyde Walcott pushed through a rule change which meant that as per the new edict, the winning candidate needed to secure a two-thirds majority of the votes of the Test-playing nations besides an absolute majority of the associate nations.

As per ICC norms, a rule change needed to be passed by the Test nations and the associate nations - but in this instance, it was never put to the vote, but merely pushed through as an edict from on high.

The election was declared aborted, and Walcott got an extension of tenure for one year, with the proviso that the next election would be held in June 1997.

At the time, there was some talk that the BCCI might take the hasty amendment of rules to the law courts - but nothing came of it. "This time," says Dalmiya, "the Board is backing me to the hilt, which means that if there are any legal disputes, the Board will take upon itself the task of fighting it."

Again, this year, Dalmiya goes into the election as favourite. Besides India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka are sure to back his candidature. Dalmiya, besides, has been instrumental in helping associate nations raise much-needed funds, and has also gone out of his way to ensure that tours and tournaments are scheduled in these countries (vide the Singapore and Canada excursions last year). Again, Zimbabwe is almost certain to back the Indian candidate.

However, the rule change remains in force, though Dalmiya apparently believes that the ICC might do a rethink and that this time, the election will be decided on simple ballot. And if a similar situation to last year's arises again, then chances are that the BCCI will take the issue to the law courts.

One thing is for sure - the cricket boards of Pakistan and Sri Lanka will back any such action to the hilt, if only because increasingly of late, the perception has gained ground in the Asian sub-continent that the ICC is being run as a sort of white man's club, that the players from the Asian region are the ones to face the rough end of the rule book while the ones from England, Australia, South Africa and New Zealand get off scot free, and so on.

To end this bias, it is believed in these parts, the best solution is to have an Asian elected to the top slot in the ICC - and right now, the choice has fallen on Dalmiya to lead the Asian challenge.