If I start talking about Bindra it will be a long story: Dalmiya

Ever since the Hansie Cronje indiscretion erupted on the cricket scenario, Jagmohan Dalmiya has been in the midst of a number of controversies. Various allegations raised by cricket administrators in India, have turned away the attention of the people from Cronje's misdeeds. The president of the International Cricket Council (ICC) has somehow maintained a stoic silence over all the controversies that are raging against him. Dalmiya has finally bared it all in an interview in Calcutta today, stressing that he is being accused of misdeeds that he is not even aware of. Excerpts:

Allegation 1) Misappropriation of funds worth $ 40 lakhs while selling the rights of the Wills World Cup. The main idea behind the selling of the rights to Prasar Bharati was that the latter would appoint Mark Mascarenhas as the sub licensee in the deal

Answer: The allegation has been raised by Arun Agarwal. The man is an MBBS doctor who passed out from the Benaras Hindu University. He is a doctor not a chartered accountant. The moment Doordarshan came to know about him, they have thrown him out of their organisation. So tell me who is the real cheat. Doordarshan wanted to pay $ 85,00,000 , TWI $ 83,00,000 and World Tel 70,00,000. If I was involved I could have easily asked World Tel to pay the difference. Then there would have been no hassles.

Allegation 2) Allowing Bangladesh to host the first mini World Cup. Even though, Bangladesh was yet to be admitted as an official test playing nation.

Answer: Bangladesh has the necessary infrastructure to host an international level tournament. The decision was taken as a part of the planning to globalise cricket. Even before the mini World Cup was played at Bangladesh, the Asia Cup had been conducted there. Today, the public in India are crazy about cricket for two reasons. The first of them was Kapil Dev's World Cup win in 1983. The second has been the hosting of two World Cup tournaments in 1987 and 1996. We are out to globalise the game and for that reason Kenya has been awarded the next Mini World Cup.

Allegation 3) Have been involved in various nefarious deals involving cricket at the Maldives

Answer: The airport at the Maldives has been constructed by my company M.L.Dalmiya. On the same lines I am also building up a leather city at the cost of Rupees 300 crores with the help of the West Bengal state Government. I have substantial financial stability. I really do not need to earn from other means. I have brought close to rupees 200 crores from various companies for the Indian team. Have not even taken a cup of tea from these companies.

Allegation 4) The BCCI, the ICC, everywhere there are allegations against you of being involved in financial scams

Answer: Except for cricket writers of North India, nobody else is writing about these scams. They are doing so because my friend Inderjit Singh Bindra is motivating them to do so. If I start talking about him it will be a long story. The President of the BCCI has no right to sign on any financial document. He did so once and then requested various BCCI members not to disclose the deal His son stays at America and plays golf. Who provides the cost. At the drop of a hat he goes to London and stays in a five star hotel. Where does he get the money from ? How can he maintain such a luxurious lifestyle by being just an IAS officer. If one has to talk about allegations against him one will not be able to stop. He took an about of 50 lakhs from a soft drink company to win the elections at the Chennai Agm. Wanted to bribe Tripura's representative Samiran Chakrabarty to cast the vote in his favour.

Allegation 5) Relations with the owner of World Tel Mark Mascarenhas with both trying to help each other financially.

Answer: Everybody thinks that Mark pays me money. If he does not get anything why will he pay me. How many television rights have I given Mark in the last 10 years ? The decision to allot the television rights of the 1996 World Cup rights to Mark Mascarenhas was taken by a committee of 13 members. Even Mr. Bindra was in that company. Three companies have been selected for the television rights of the next two World Cups. The fourth in the list is World Tel. If I was trying to help out Mark we could have easily selected four companies instead of three.