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Dalmiya denies hand in TV deal

International Cricket Council president, and former Board of Control for Cricket in India secretary, Jagmohan Dalmiya has denied his involvement in business deals between Doordarshan and WorldTel Inc.

He strongly refuted the charges levelled by Delhi District Cricket Association secretary Sunil Dev in the media on Monday.

''I have learnt from newspaper reports that Sunil Dev is a contender for the post of the BCCI secretary in its ensuing elections. I wish him all the best. But anyone contending for an important post like this is expected to do his homework properly, and not mislead anyone with reckless statements, especially the sports loving public,'' Dalmiya said in a hard-hitting statement.

He stated that the records of the Board would amply prove that WorldTel Inc. was not granted telecast rights by the board for any international match till date. The solitary case when WorldTel worked for the board was in a domestic tournment more than two years ago.

Dalmiya further stated that the telecast rights of World Cup 1996 were granted by PILCOM (the Pakistan-India-Lanka joint organising committee) in its full meeting, after inviting quotations worldwide. "The genuineness of the grant of telecast rights for the World Cup may be verified by Dev from Justice Nasim Hasan Shah and Madhavrao Scindia,who were the chairman and the president of PILCOM respectively", Dalmiya said.

The board had granted the telecast rights for the first edition of the Challenger Trophy, which was a domestic tournament, to World Tel in March 1995. "The genuineness of grant of such rights to WorldTel could be verified by Dev from I S Bindra, the then BCCI president", Dalmiya observed.

"Production by WorldTel, or any other company, on behalf of Doordarshan, which is a government agency, is purely a matter between the concerned parties, and the BCCI had nothing to do with such arrangments", Dalmiya pointed out.

"I feel that Sunil Dev should not indulge in election gimmicks, and he should produce proofs of his allegations," Dalmiya said.

Categorically denying any involvement in the business transactions between Doordarshan and WorldTel during the Independence Cup of May 1997, Dalmiya said, "Dev should produce proofs of his allegations, or face consequences including legal action."

Sunil Dev, who was India's team manager on the 1993 trip to South Africa, has also come under fire from the BCCI, which on Monday issued an official statement castigating him for alleging that the BCCI had made money out of handing over rights to telecast international matches to WorldTel.

Bcci secretary J Y Lele, in a rejoinder, termed Dev a man with a forked tongue, who was making these allegations merely as a publicity stunt ahead of the BCCI general elections on November 6.

Dev, it needs adding, is contesting the BCCI elections as one of the candidates owing allegiance to Bindra, and opposed to Dalmiya.

Saying that Dev had a habit of making irresponsible statements without realising the harm it caused to the country's prestige, Lele said that Dev needed to check his facts before he stuck his foot in his mouth.

Meanwhile, the sub-continent has a bright chance of hosting the proposed International Cricket Council Cup, which will have the participation of all Test-playing countries, Dalmiya told the media.

The tournament, a curtain-raiser to the World Cup and scheduled to be played on a knockout basis with all nine Test nations participating, is now in the planning stages. The technical details will be finalised in the next executive board's meeting, to be held in Calcutta from December eight to nine.

Other countries were also interested in hosting the ICC Cup, Dalmiya said, adding that there was no bidding for the rights, it was simply a matter of the ICC deciding the venue.

The proposed tournament is intended to generate funds for the empty coffers of world cricket's governing body, Dalmiya said. "We are in a very bad financial shape, which needs to be overhauled urgently for better governance of cricket and for spreading the game to non-playing countries," he pointed out.

He, however, indicated that the proposed Cup would be played in a single venue, and a maximum ten days would be needed for the same. The ICC could not stretch the schedule because of the tight international commitments of each country, thus this Cup had to be squeezed into the schedule in order to ensure the participation of all nine nations.

The ICC had already set up a special five-member committee, headed by Dalmiya himself, to finalise the recommendations for the Cup. These will be placed before the ICC executive board, meeting in Calcutta in early December, Dalmiya said, and at that stage, the final decisions would be taken.