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Dalmiya group wins battle for the board

Under the watchful eyes of senior advocate R Gandhi, appointed "observer" by the Madras High Court in response to a public interest petition, the reconvened annual general body meeting of the Board of Control for Cricket in India took place in Madras on Thursday without the kind of acrimonious scenes witnessed in the first edition, held on September 21.

And when the dust settled, the Jagmohan Dalmiya faction emerged clear winners over the rival group, headed by Inderjit Singh Bindra.

More accurately, Raj Singh Dungarpur, the Dalmiya-sponsored candidate, defeated his rival Dnyaneshwar Agashe by a margin of 17 votes to 13, and retained the presidentship of the BCCI. And J Y Lele, now acting secretary of the BCCI, defeated Sunil Dev by a 19-10 margin to confirm his appointment to the post.

S K Nayar was re-elected treasurer of the Board, while Jyoti Bajpayee was elected joint secretary. All sitting vice presidents -- S D A Drabu of the North Zone, N Venkat Rao (South), Manohar Joshi (West), Samiran Chakraborty (East) and Kamal Morarka (Central) were all re-elected, unopposed.

Later this evening and through an extended session tomorrow, the board will sit to nominate the various sub-committees, including the crucial national selection committee. Such long-delayed issues as the identity of the next coach and manager of the national team, as also the physiotherapist, will be decided before the board concludes its sitting.