BCCI working committee backs Dalmiya

The BCCI working committee meeting, which began deliberations this morning, has decided to back the board president Jagmohan Dalmiya.

According to a senior board official a resolution to this effect is likely to be passed by the working committee. The resolution would be passed unanimously as almost all the members of the working committee including Raj Singh Dungarpur have stressed the need to stand behind the BCCI president in the hour of crisis, the board official told rediff.com.

Speaking from the hotel lobby in Taj Palace in New Delhi where the working committee meeting is being chaired by Jagmohan Dalmiya, Dungarpur said that whatever may be his personal opinion of the controversy involving the decisions of the match referee Mike Denness and its subsequent fall out, the tradition is that the working committee despite its differences would back Jagmohan Dalmiya.

"It is the tradition. How can I go against the tradition," Dungarpur said before going in for the meeting.

Vice-president Kamal Morarka dismissed the threats held out by the ICC that it would expel the BCCI if it did not comply with its authority.

The ICC has threatened that it would take a serious note of the developments if the BCCI insisted on playing Virendra Sehwag in the Mohali Test to be played between India and England, which begins on December 3.

The feeling in the board circles is that it should now treat the matter carefully. "How can ICC isolate one billion people and expel us," Kamal Morarka asked.

But the others within the board want to adopt a soft line and want BCCI to refrain from doing anything that would precipitate matters further. The meeting of the board is likely to conclude around 5 p.m. after which Dalmiya is expected to brief the media.

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