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| May 7, 2006 | Sunday | Rabi-us-Sani 8, 1427 |
BCCI chief blames previous regime for bid delay
NEW DELHI, May 6: There was no let up in the tirade against former Indian Cricket Board chief Jagmohan Dalmiya as Board President Sharad Pawar blamed the previous regime for BCCI's delay in submitting ICC World Cup 2011 Compliance Manual that almost cost them the event.
Though Pawar stopped short of naming Dalmiya, he said, “Last year, ICC had sent Compliance Manual to all its member boards and each country was expected to submit it. But after change in the Board, we did not get details about it and there was no record for us to see.”
“It was only when I went to Karachi that I learnt about it, briefed by our friends in Pakistan Cricket Board. We sat together with them and decided to have Sri Lanka and Bangladesh on board and got in touch with them.
“There were so many things to do - get clearance from four federal governments and involve head of the states. So we missed first deadline and sought more time from ICC and fortunately we landed the event,” he said.
Earlier, former BCCI President I.S. Bindra had blamed Dalmiya and previous set-up for not passing on files and delaying the bid.
Pawar admitted the BCCI was cagey about getting the event as joint Australia-New Zealand bid was submitted well in time and it was quite good.
“In fact we learned from their bid. We had to get a number of clearances and we got in touch with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Bangladesh Prime Minister, Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf and Sri Lanka President Mahinda Rajapakse. The delay was a worry indeed but finally we got it,” he said.
“In Dubai ICC meeting, we entrusted Mr Bindra to present the case on behalf of four Asian countries.
“He was an experienced man who did it in last two World Cups in Asia and both he and I personally got in touch with all ICC members and we won it overwhelmingly.”
“It was our legitimate right to host the event because ICC had agreed to award every third World Cup to Asia,” he added.
Bindra, on other hand, rubbished reports that West Indies agreed to vote for India after BCCI promised financial package for next year's World Cup in the Caribbean.—Agencies
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