Mihir Bose: Dalmiya`s arrival prompts fears (12 June 1997)

Thursday 12 June 1997

Dalmiya`s arrival prompts fears

Mihir Bose

JAGMOHAN DALMIYA`S elevation to the presidency of the International Cricket Council may prove as revo- lutionary as Joao Havelange`s election as president of FI- FA, football`s governing body, in 1974.

Havelange`s victory over Stanley Rous followed the bit- terest election in FIFA history, and was followed by a meeting where, with Havelange having won with the support of the Soviet bloc, fears were expressed that the communists were taking over world sport.

Dalmiya comes to his revamped job without such obvious public bitterness. The fierce rivalry and plotting that has been going on in cricket`s higher reaches for the last year, since Dalmiya staked his claim to the job, has been carefully masked. And his arrival at the top brings the fear, not of communism but of commercialism.

Dalmiya`s business skills will certainly be a shock to Lord`s. His stewardship of the Indian Board in the last decade has made them one of the richest cricket bodies in the world, and it was his business acumen which drove the commercial success of last year`s World Cup in the sub-continent, producing a profit of $50 million, more than enough to equip every Test ground there with floodlights.

Even among his close Indian associates, Dalmiya is more feared than loved, and one described him as a bit of a "rough diamond".

His style can cause problems. At last year`s ICC annual meeting, with fierce debate going on about Dalmiya`s right to succeed Sir Clyde Walcott, Dalmiya spoke so abrasively to Sir Clyde, who he felt was too close to England and Australia, that it required deft intervention from the then Indian Board president, Indrajit Bhindra, to smooth over a tense situation.

Dalmiya has mellowed a bit since, but as the first thorough-going businessman to head cricket, his desire to remould the world game and make it a sports industry comparable with football or athletics is intense.

Last year, he spoke of remodelling Test cricket, appearing to suggest he would make it a pale copy of one-day cricket. He talked of limiting the number of overs in Tests. Last week, speaking from Calcutta, he seemed to have taken a step back from such a revolutionary action, saying: "Those were off-the-cuff remarks I made. But what we need to do is make Test cricket more attractive."

Dalmiya plans to do this by having a definite, ordered cricket calendar where Tests are regularly played between coun- tries - at present, the only fixed point in the cricket calendar is England playing Australia every 18 months. In Dalmiya`s calendar, each Test country should visit another once every four years, even if this means playing only three Tests and a number of oneday internationals.

And with his limited-overs proposal for Tests raising a storm, Dalmiya is looking to a world championship of cricket to bring it to the 21st century. While the ICC consider a proposal put forward by Telegraph writer Clive Ellis for a championship in 2001, the Asian Cricket Council, who are also meeting in London this week, are set to approve an Asian championship be- ginning this autumn.

UNLIKE the Ellis plan, this will extend over two years and involve India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka touring each oth- er for a series of three Tests. At the end of two years, the points awarded for wins and draws will decide the champions.

The three-year Dalmiya reign will also see an extension of oneday cricket, which will be used to take the game to new parts. Dalmiya is affronted that after 120 years of international cricket, only nine countries play it, and he is keen to use the oneday game as a way of broadening its reach.

He arrives in London having masterminded a four-nation cricket tournament played in India in May, the hottest month. When Dalmiya mooted the idea at last year`s ICC, some of the other cricketing countries thought the plan was unworkable given that daytime temperatures reach more than 110 degrees.

But using floodlights, the matches began at 5 pm, ended at 11 am, and Dalmiya made arrangements with the Indian government for public transport until 2 am. He says: "When we suggested it, a lot of people laughed, but these were the first genuine night matches, and our innovation worked."

Now that he is at the helm of cricket, Dalmiya will be keen to suggest similar innovations, and is very supportive of taking the game to the United States. The Indian Board are considering plans to play triangular tournaments with Pakistan and the West Indies in New Jersey and Los Angeles.

If Dalmiya`s stewardship of the Indian Board is any guide, in three years from now, cricket will have expanded, but in the process Dalmiya may have stepped on some of cricket`s sensitive traditional toes.

Source :: The Electronic Telegraph (https://www.telegraph.co.uk/)