Split of cricket world avoided: Dalmiya

NEW DELHI, March 26: Indian cricket chief Jagmohan Dalmiya, due to take over as head of the International Cricket Council (ICC) in June, said here Wednesday he was relieved a split was averted in the game's ruling body

27-Mar-1997

27 March 1997

"It's a great moment for India, a great moment for Indian sport," the 56-year-old Indian cricket board secretary said after his nomination to the game's top post after an acrimonious battle.

Dalmiya was given a three-year term after a compromise formula was worked out by the ICC at its special meeting in Kuala Lumpur on Saturday. "It won't be proper to talk of specifics now ... all I would like to emphasise is that our stand has been thoroughly vindicated," Dalmiya said.

The nomination would have come eight months earlier if the faction-ridden ICC had accepted Dalmiya's simple majority win (25-13) over Australian Malcolm Gray at the elections held in London last July. But incumbent Clyde Walcott of the West Indies, backed by England, Australia and New Zealand, cancelled the election on the ground that Dalmiya did not have two-thirds support of the nine test-playing nations.

Dalmiya, backed by four test nations and 17 associate members, agreed to postpone the election by a year so that a compromise formula could be worked out. But he also threatened to go to court if he was denied the post "by dubious means."

With Pakistan, Sri Lanka, India and Zimbabwe behind Dalmiya, the ICC was faced with a real threat of a rift. New Zealander John Anderson stepped in to propose a face-saving formula, by which the post would be rotated among test-playing nations for three-year terms.

It was decided at Kuala Lampur that India would head the ICC till 2000 and would be succeeded by an Australian representative. To present a united front, Dalmiya's nomination was proposed by South Africa and seconded by the West Indies. Both boards had reservations about Dalmiya's election last year. Similarly, Australia's nomination was proposed and seconded by Pakistan and Sri Lanka.

Dalmiya, who organised two World Cups in the Indian sub-continent in 1987 and 1996, will be the first Asian to head the ICC.

Source:: Dawn (https://xiber.com/dawn/)