Dalmiya: I have a couple of regrets

The former International Cricket Council President Jagmohan Dalmiya has a couple of regrets regarding his three year tenure. The first is the failure to start a World Championship of Test Cricket. In an interview in Calcutta to the vernacular daily Ananda Bazar Patrika, Dalmiya said, "The two regrets that I have is my failure to start a World Championship of Test Cricket. The other is regarding the match fixing controversy. It started during my last year as the ICC President. Had it started earlier, I could have handled it in a much better way."

In fact Dalmiya has expressed the thought that cricket is passing through a very demanding period. "We still do not know how deep the vice of match-fixing has affected the game. If the total percentage of got up games has been less than one percent, then I would term it as sad. However, if it is more than 10% then it can be compared to an earthquake affecting the game. However, we still do not know how many games have been affected so far. We are still having to depend on rumours."

Dalmiya does not feel that the entire issue has affected his performance as the ICC President. However, he is ready to admit that he never imagined that the match fixing controversy would become so big. " Now I feel that from the first day we should have handed over the matter to the CBI instead of the Justice Chandrachud Committee. However, other than this, I would say that I have played a very satisfying innings. New concepts like `Cricket Week' and the `Development Committee' have been introduced.''