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Attempt to fix me, says Dalmiya

International Cricket Committee president Jagmohan Dalmiya warned on Thursday night of legal action against those who have charged him of defrauding Doordarshan with regards to the telecast rights for the ICC knock out tournament in Dhaka in October 1998.

Addressing a hurriedly called press conference at the Cricket Association of Bengal premises around 2230 IST, a visibly enraged Dalmiya said, " My attention has been drawn to a UNI report which quoted a former Doordarshan official, namely Arun Agarwal, of leveling serious charges against the ICC. And I feel there cannot be a bigger lie than this. I now strongly feel that the time has finally come for the world cricket body to act and not remain a mute spectator to the flow of allegations every day. I have sought advices from my solicitors to move the courts of law since, I feel, the judiciary is still vibrant."

UNI had published an item quoting Agarwal that both Dalmiya and WorldTel's Mark Mascarenhas were the 'prime accused' in a telecast rights scam, which apparently robbed Doordarshan of a whopping $4 million. Agrawal, in the said report, also alleged that the two 'accused' had endeavoured hard to 'shelve the fact relating to the erstwhile sports consortium.'

Dalmiya said that the new charges of irregularities while granting television rights by the ICC was a part of man-fixing. " When the world is rocked by the allegations of match-fixing , a new game of man-fixing has started against me. I always thought that the man-fixing was done by underworld. However, it seems it is now being done at behest of the world above," the ICC chief added.

Brushing aside the allegations of financial embezzlement in television rights Dalmiya said, "In February '98, the ICC had invited quotations for telecasting the ICC knock-out in Dhaka. Of the seven parties, the two highest bidders were Prasar Bharati and TWI. Both had offered bids of $8.5 million and $8.2 million respectively. We then asked for revised bids from these two parties and their revised offers for the global rights were $ 10 million and $9.5 million. On the merit of the offer, Prasar Bharati was awarded the rights. So, tell me how was cricket board responsible if Prasar Bharti decided to issue sub-licenses to other companies?"

According to Dalmiya, the money received from the PB was in 'the ICC coffers'. He said that it would be interesting to know the stand of the PB in the current scandal. Dalmiya felt that the latest revelation was an ingenious ploy to vilify him and the ICC, which unfortunately has further damaged the image of cricket.