Dalmiya may get special BCCI post

Jagmohan Dalmiya is all set to become India's permanent representative at the ICC until the 2007 World Cup in West Indies, according to an Indo-Asian News Service report. Dalmiya will be appointed to this position at a special general meeting of the Board of Control for Cricket in India to be held next month, a source told IANS.

Dalmiya, a former president of the ICC, comes to the end of his current tenure as BCCI president in September. It is at this stage that he is expected to take over the proposed position as India's representative at the ICC. The report quotes an unnamed BCCI official as saying, "Dalmiya will be a co-opted member who will be given a responsibility, an assignment, which is to represent BCCI at the ICC until the 2007 World Cup."

The official also said that there would be no need to amend the BCCI constitution to create this position for Dalmiya. "It is like the affiliation committee that the BCCI has formed, for which we did not need to amend the board constitution. Moreover, this happens all over the world, and it is not being done specifically in this case," he said. "It will not be difficult to create this post for Dalmiya."

While the next annual general meeting is scheduled to take place only in September, moves are afoot to create this post for Dalmiya well before that. Bikash Baruah, the secretary of the Assam Cricket Association, considered to be Dalmiya loyalists, has written to the Indian board with suggestions to this effect.

The report quotes from Baruah's letter: "Dalmiya may be entrusted with the responsibility of representing BCCI in ICC meetings and be the guiding personality of BCCI in all national and international issues. In short, he should be honoured in a befitting manner, and if necessary the BCCI constitution may be amended."