India match is now Eden’s forbidden fruit Shame

Mr Dalmiya: You dropped Cup and our pride
Calcuttans have to pay for the Jagmohan Dalmiya-headed Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB) over-reaching itself: they won’t get to see Team India at the Eden, in the World Cup, which begins next month.

This afternoon, the International Cricket Council (ICC) decided to shift the India-England match, scheduled for February 27, to a venue which will be finalised by January 31.

Bangalore, which already has the low-on-interest India versus Ireland match, looks to be the hot favourite. Chennai is also being talked about.

Dalmiya was in Kalyani for a “meeting” and, so, not immediately available for a comment. The slap in his face couldn’t have been harder, though. Ironically, from an organisation he once headed and helped turn around.

An architect of the hugely successful 1987 and 1996 World Cups, Dalmiya now stands to face opposition from within the CAB.

Late in the evening, Dalmiya addressed a media conference and released a copy of his letter to Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) president Shashank Manohar.

Dalmiya has, through the BCCI, sought a further extension, on a par with the allowance made for the Wankhede, which is to host the April 2 final, and three venues in Sri Lanka.

“I haven’t yet received any communication from Mr Dalmiya, who did speak to me.… Once the letter comes, I’ll forward it to the ICC,” the Nagpur-based Manohar told The Telegraph, around 10pm.

Contacted in Dubai, ICC spokesman James Fitzgerald made it clear that he wasn’t “aware” of a move to review the decision.

Not long ago, Dalmiya would have pulled off anything. Not now. But if he can still force a review, that would be his biggest achievement.

The venues were finalised on November 9, 2009. It’s a fact that the Eden hosted an ODI, a Test and IPL III after that, but the CAB ought to have known better.

Whether the Eden gets to host the three remaining matches, all light on profile except possibly the one featuring South Africa and Ireland, on March 15, is going to be decided on January 31.

Contrary to the CAB’s “briefing” on Tuesday after the ICC’s final inspection, the venue inspectors went back to Mumbai and Dubai “distinctly unhappy” with the progress at the Eden.

January 25 had been the extended deadline for the CAB and the other four.

The alternative venue is going to be decided by the BCCI, and a very senior official said: “The seven other World Cup hosts in India want the England match.… It’s a big-ticket affair and the associations have begun lobbying hard....”

He ruled out a switch, with the Eden getting to host a later India match instead of the first at home after the opener in Dhaka. “That’s out of the question.”

One understands that the decision will largely be taken by Manohar and it may eventually be wholly driven by the logistics factor.

There’s only a slim outside chance that one of the three venues not hosting an India group match — Ahmedabad, Mohali and Mumbai — could be the big beneficiary.

Bangalore (Ireland, March 6), New Delhi (The Netherlands, March 9), Nagpur (South Africa, March 12) and Chennai (West Indies, March 20) are hosting India in the group stage.

According to the very senior BCCI official, the CAB should never have taken a chance and demolished two blocks each on either side of the Club House.

“Construction is almost always subject to delays and the experienced Dalmiya, who is himself in the construction business, ought to have realised that. The new look should have been put on hold till after the World Cup.…”

With the India match taken away, the city has lost the chance of erasing the blot suffered in the 1996 World Cup semi-final, when Arjuna Ranatunga’s Sri Lanka won by default.

Some may point fingers at Sharad Pawar, who heads the ICC and who ended Dalmiya’s hold over the BCCI just over five years ago, but the CAB alone has to answer why it kept missing deadlines.

The fiasco could even become a political issue.

It’s possible that, unlike in 1987 and in 1996, Dalmiya delegated far too much responsibility and it boomeranged.

Dalmiya’s foes in the BCCI won’t be shedding tears, but spare a thought for the cricket-crazy Calcuttans. No India match in the World Cup, no Sourav Ganguly in IPL IV.…

What next?

Jagmohan Dalmiya

WHY THEY MUST ANSWER

Deadlines are like records… they are meant to be broken: that has been the Dalmiya-headed CAB’s attitude the past month. “The ICC team came to assess the progress of the work at Eden Gardens today but we have until January 31 to complete the work,” CAB joint secretary Biswarup Dey had said on January 25.

Dalmiya had said on the same day: “It appeared to me that they (the ICC) were happy with the progress of the work at the Eden. We were always confident…. The rumours that the work is behind the schedule is baseless.”