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Dalmiya denies ouster from ICC's marketing committee

International Cricket Committee president Jagmohan Dalmiya today said he and his successors would stay away from financial negotiations in future, primarily to keep themselves above allegations of irregularities.

"Since baseless allegations were aired against the ICC president, the executive board, quite rightly, thought the position of the president and the president-elect must be protected from such allegations, and that the financial negotiations should be conducted by the chairman of the finance and marketing committee and the ICC chief executive," he explained.

He, however, added that he would continue to be an ex-officio member of the finance and marketing committee and a member of the consultative group formed by the world body to decide the bundling and commercial rights of ICC events.

Dalmiya was addressing a press conference at the premises of the Cricket Association of Bengal in Calcutta to deny and 'condemn' a report published in a British newspaper, saying he had been ousted from the ICC's finance and marketing committee.

"I have already served legal notice on the newspaper and the writer concerned for publishing a damaging article a week ago," he said.

The ICC chief said he was applying to the Government of India for foreign exchange to enable him to sue the newspaper and its reporter abroad. But he did not rule out the possibility of suing them in India as well.

"There must be a stop to wild and baseless allegations and malicious reportage so that the game is able to recover from the current crisis and restore its glory. I reiterate my earlier refrain that no black sheep should be allowed in the game. But we must not also harass innocent individuals. There should be some mechanism whereby innocents are not maligned," he said.

Dalmiya had been in Paris to attend a meeting of the ICC's finance and marketing committee from May 4 to 6. Elaborating on the agenda for that meeting, he said it was held to decide on the television rights for the 2003 World Cup scheduled to be held in South Africa.