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Mohali: To ensure that the 81st Annual General Meeting (AGM) of the BCCI goes smoothly in Mumbai on Wednesday, the high-profile bigwigs of the Board's executive committee have fished out a trump card: Jagmohan Dalmiya.
The olive branch to the Cricket Association of Bengal honcho is to ensure current BCCI secretary N Srinivasan's easy elevation as president-elect during the AGM. In return, the BCCI is likely to drop all charges him.
There is a lot riding on the shoulders of BCCI president Shashank Manohar at the moment. The urgency to remove Lalit Modi once and for all, to ensure that AC Muthiah doesn't get a legal privilege against Srinivasan, the need to take all 30-odd members of the Board into confidence and make sure that there are no Modis and Muthiahs to contend with in the near future.
Dalmiya was BCCI's enemy No. 1 ever since the acrimonious BCCI elections in 2004. That famous casting vote which helped Ranbir Singh Mahendra triumph and later union minister Sharad Pawar defeating him at his own game is well chronicled.
Later, Dalmiya faced a coup-de-grace, when the Board - led by Pawar and his unofficial legal advisor Manohar - went after him. Dalmiya was banned from BCCI meetings, an FIR was filed stating criminal charges and the defeated Board bigwig was accused of embezzling the 1996 World Cup funds.
Today, Dalmiya at 70 is a loner within the BCCI. But he wields enough power to ensure that the CAB is under his control. The current BCCI administration knows that Dalmiya is the only man who can play troubleshooter for the likes of Muthiah. "His support certainly means a lot. At least, it means that all members have been taken into confidence," says the official.
Srinivasan's immediate priority is to oust Modi which will happen any way because no Board member is ready to either propose or second Modi's name to the executive committee. "Modi is history but Muthiah is fresh trouble," the official says. And therefore, Dalmiya is back in the picture.
