BCCI big fight: blow by blow

"It should be renamed the Board of Control for Circus in India," a journalist quipped about the Board of Control for Cricket in India's two-day annual general meeting, in Kolkata on Thursday-Friday.

On Friday, the circus lasted a little less than Thursday, but it was just as full of trapeze acts and juggling displays.

Every time someone from the meeting came out of the door, to go to the men's room, the waiting pack of news hounds jumped on them, hungry for a byte.

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Former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Farooq Abdullah spotted the trend early. On his second trip to the toilet he emerged from the meeting with the little finger of his right hand held up in the universal sign for nature's call.

And Jagmohan Dalmiya, the man most believe has the shrewdest brain in the cricket business, assured reporters that in the next AGM, the Board members would have mock fights for the media "so that you can write juicy stories".

But on Friday, the juice came in drips and dribbles. First it was learnt that the Dalmiya camp had raised questions on the appointment of the two additional observers: who appointed them, who paid for their travel, etc.

Dalmiya clarified that they had merely questioned how the Board slipped in extending proper courtesy to legal luminaries.

It was learnt, again through the way only scribes learn about goings-on behind closed doors, that the Kalighat Cricket Club and the Karnataka Cricket Association had filed a petition in the Calcutta high court, challenging the appointment of two additional observers.

And then came the stay order on the elections, item 'e' on the agenda sheet, till the end of the hearing. The meeting could go on, the court ruled, but, as a source who attended the meeting put it, 'All other agendas can go to hell. It's the elections that are most important.'

The atmosphere at the meeting was 'polite but very tense,' the source added.

Abdullah fumed out of the Taj Bengal coffee shop, saying the case was a "desperate delaying tactics to hold on to power".

Former Board president Raj Singh Dungarpur, a known Dalmiya baiter, declared: "We are becoming a joke, thanks to the ambition of one man [Dalmiya]."

Then came the Calcutta high court verdict, that the two additional observers would have to go. The elderly legal luminaries left, but not before they too had to confirm to the cameras that "we have received a telephonic communication from the BCCI's legal counsel".

Meanwhile, inside the closed doors, the battle for Bihar Cricket Association's voting rights was on. Perhaps the first sign of a compromise came when it was brushed under the carpet. If BCA gets voting rights, it upsets the delicate balance of numbers.

It was Dalmiya who proposed that given the legal wrangles, it was better to adjourn the meeting till the cases are over. He proposed that Sharad Pawar -- the main challenger to Dalmiya's supremacy -- and N Srinivasan be included in the BCCI's marketing committee.

A little while ago, Dungarpur was saying, "He [Dalmiya] always wants marketing."

The importance of marketing, given the lucrative cricket obsession, is not difficult to comprehend.

The proposal was accepted.

"I wanted Srinivasan in the committee because he has been sidelined for long," Pawar told reporters outside. He had tried to give the media the slip by leaving when Board president Ranbir Singh Mahendra was briefing the press, in vain.

At the end of a two-day meeting that included hiring 25 rooms in a five-star hotel -- albeit at discounted rates -- all the meeting attendees tried to portray that all was well.

 "We have put a full stop to the atmosphere of acrimony that was on," Dalmiya claimed.

Pawar declared there was no compromise.

But the problems remain.

The issue of Bihar is still unresolved. Sources said the prospect of approaching the Supreme Court over the dismissal of the two observers could not be ruled out.

There is possibility of horse trading, despite Dungarpur's claim that "our chaps are not buyable commodity".

There is also the issue of Ganguly versus Chappell, which ran parallel to the meeting like a potent subplot.

Dalmiya, despite his claims that he merely helped out any cricketer in trouble, including Sachin Tendulkar during the ball tampering issue, and Harbhajan Singh, during the chucking controversy, is a known Ganguly backer.

But, as Dungarpur put it, "Mr Ganguly has not helped his [Dalmiya's] cause.

So, ladies and gentlemen, the circus is merely postponed. Not over.