Cricket Pulse

The day after Jagmohan Dalmiya stormed back to power in the CAB, all was quiet on the BCCI front. There was no outrage, no sympathy either for the ruling group’s rout. “It was a foregone conclusion as all reports from Kolkata pointed to a change of guard at the CAB,” said a top BCCI functionary.

The BCCI appears to be quite content to wait and watch. Dalmiya, on his part, has been quite restrained in his post-victory utterances. There has been no tirade against the BCCI, no rhetoric either.

BCCI mandarins are, however, not willing to take anything on face value from their former chief who fought two bitter battles with the Sharad Pawar group to become the Board’s patron after his tenure ended in 2004.

Dalmiya, of course, still has much to answer to the Board members, especially with regard to the PILCOM book of accounts over which he was banned for life. Let off on a technicality by the court of law, a much-mellowed Dalmiya is prepared to claw his way back into power.

However, tt will be anything but easy. Most of his old ‘friends’ have either been ousted from their respective associations or switched loyalty.

SK Nair has been ousted from Kerala, ditto for Venkat Rao in Andhra, Brijesh Patel is no longer all-powerful in Karnataka, Narhari Amin is in trouble in Gujarat, Amitabh Choudhary is on a sticky wicket in Jharkhand and Anurag Thakur of Himachal had jumped the fence.

This leaves Dalmiya with just one real ally in the form of Ranbir Singh Mahendra of Haryana.