Dalmiya denies `dubious deal'

Jagmohan Dalmiya has his hands full these days in the midst of all the match fixing allegations. As if this is not enough, the ICC president was on Thursday named, along with Mark Mascerenhas of World Tel as the `prime accused' in what a former financial expert at Prasar Bharati alleged as a `dubious' deal in cricket telecast rights for the 1998 ICC knock out tournament in Dhaka that cost Doordarshan four million dollars.

Arun Agarwal made public his year old report, called it a `telecast rights scam' and said it could not have been done without the connivance of Doordarshan officials. Releasing the report, which was submitted to the Prasar Bharati board last year, Agarwal alleged that Dalmiya, in March 1998, had entered into post bid negotiations with Doordarshan as the sole negotiator for the ICC knock out tournament and increased the telecast fee from eight million dollars to eleven million of which four million was to be for the Indian rights, six million for international rights and one million towards international costs. Agarwal said it did not make sense that India should pay eight million dollars for the Dhaka tournament as Pakistan paid 200,000 dollars for the same. Taking full responsibility for the report, Agarwal said he was making it public now ``in the national interest'' as Prasar Bharati had not done it so far.

Not unexpectedly, Dalmiya reacted strongly to the allegations. Calling a press conference in Calcutta late in the night, the ICC president denied allegations of the `dubious deals' while awarding telecast rights in the 1998 ICC knock out tournament. He said he would consult his solicitors and move the court against Prasar Bharathi for making the allegations against him.