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Why is the ICC lying?

Back home, there is a file somewhere that contains all the certificates I won for various sporting and other extra-curricular activities during my school and college days. And one of them -- under the university crest, and decked out with all kinds of impressive seals and signatures -- announces that I have won first prize in the inter-collegiate group dance competition.

The inter-collegiate ladies group dance competition, that is.

Does that certificate make me a lady?

18 board members of the ICC have signed a document saying that Jagmohan Dalmiya is not involved in the television rights scam, and that he was at no point involved in the negotiations.

Does that make Dalmiya.... no, never mind, we'll get at this another way.

On Tuesday, at the end of day one of the two-day ICC meeting to look into match-fixing and other irregularities, that body's chief executive, David Richards, made a statement to the effect that Dalmiya was not guilty of any wrongdoing, and that he had at no point been involved in the negotiations.

That statement was not true, as we had pointed out in this article.

A day later, that oral statement has been further buttressed, with an official document, a kind of sponsored clean-chit, signed by all members. Which says that Dalmiya was never involved in negotiations for television rights for the 1998 mini-World Cup held in Dhaka. 18 ICC board members have affixed their signatures to that document. Which, sorry to say, is not worth the piece of paper it was printed on.

The facts are these -- and they are culled from a file (No 128) put up by Prasar Bharti Deputy Director General (C&S) Rakesh Bahadur for the attention of then CEO SS Gill, on March 10, 1998.

As per this file, Bahadur, negotiating on behalf of DD, was told by David Richards, chief executive of the ICC and managing director of ICC Development International, the Virgin Islands-registered company, to "follow up negotiations with Jagmohan Dalmiya in Calcutta."

These are Mr Bahadur's words: "I was called for discussions on 27th February, when Mr DL Richards, MD, ICC Development International Ltd and Mr Ehsan Mani, representing ICC Finance Committee), were present...

"Mr Richards went over the bid document clause by clause and sought clarification wherever required. He then suggested that I should follow up the negotiations with President, ICC, Mr Jagmohan Dalmiya, in Calcutta...

"After reaching back (sic!) I appraised CEO/DDG/KK/DDG Finance) about the outcome and then proceeded to Calcutta where I and Mr Siddharth Ray of M/s Stracon (acting on behalf of the consortium) had detailed discussions with Mr Dalmiya on 3/4/5 March, 1998."

So, was Mr Dalmiya involved in negotiations?

Further, this: After talking of the fact that he was told TWI had increased its bid amount, and that Bill Sindrich of TWI was in constant touch with Dalmiya, Bahadur writes on record: "Ultimately, a deadline was set by Mr Dalmiya for final receiving of offers by 6.00 PM IST on 4th March 1998."

And more: "After consulting Mr Siddharth Ray, a revised bid was submitted to President, ICC, Mr Dalmiya....

"The revenue-sharing formula was arrived at after consultations with Mr Dalmiya and as per his advise. This revised bid offer was acceptable to the ICC and communication to this effect was given by Mr Dalmiya on 5th March 1998...."

Fact one: David Richards, the man who said Dalmiya was not involved in any negotiations, was the man who, himself, advised one of the negotiating parties to consult Dalmiya.

Fact two: When the story of the television scam first broke, Dalmiya's defence was: 'The ICC merely sold the rights to Prasar Bharti, if that body then sold it to others, that is not our lookout, we are not involved'. However, the minutes of the meetings logged by the Prasar Bharti DyDG clearly show that an official of Stracon, one of the parties that subsequently bought the rights from DD, was present at the meetings with Dalmiya.

Fact three: Jagmohan Dalmiya, sitting in his Calcutta office, very clearly pushed up the bidding by informing Bahadur that bigger bids had come in, or were expected, from outfits like TWI, and giving PB time to revise its bid.

Fact four: Jagmohan Dalmiya very clearly was involved in finetuning the revenue-sharing agreements for the alliance of four partners that purchased the television rights from PB, after the latter had bought it from the ICC.

Item: Jagmohan Dalmiya was very clearly, very intimately, involved in every single stage of the negotiations.

Why then did Richards -- who of all people should have known better -- say that Dalmiya was not involved in the negotiations? What is Richards trying to hide?

What prompted 18 members of the ICC board to sign a document certifying that Dalmiya was never involved in any negotiations? What investigation did they do before arriving at, and attesting to, that conclusion?

What is the ICC trying to cover up?

Prem Panicker