- Weather | Horoscope | Stocks
expressindia web
HomeBlogsCricketAstrologyShoppingTendersClassifieds OpinionsTravel
| Make this your homepage | Archive
Expressindia » Story

Dalmiya bouncer could force Prasun to lock horns with Shah Rukh

Font Size -

Nadim Siraj

Posted online: Wednesday, February 27, 2008 at 12:46:17
Updated: Wednesday, February 27, 2008 at 01:06:05


Kolkata, February 26 He showed up at the Eden Gardens after 14 long months. And in his typical style, Jagmohan Dalmiya hurled a bouncer at Prasun Mukherjee & Co that could force the former police chief to get into an embarrassing confrontation with Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan.

Ending weeks of speculation over whether Eden Gardens can at all host the Indian Premier League’s (IPL) Kolkata leg matches, the Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB) top brass finally heaved a sigh of relief after today’s IPL-related special meeting, formally announcing that Eden will be the hosts.

But the Mukherjee-led administration was dealt a couple of major blows, with their rival bigwig and nemesis Dalmiya pounding the CAB’s ruling faction with uneasy questions and demands.

When the dust settled after a chaotic evening at the CAB office, it was clear that the Dalmiya-led opposition not only scored major brownie points over the distribution of the IPL booty, but went as far as forcing Mukherjee & Co to lock horns with Shah Rukh over ticket distribution.

The Bollywood superstar’s company Red Chillies Entertainment owns the rights to the Kolkata team, with Eden slated to host seven of the Kolkata team’s 14 matches during the 44-day IPL Twenty20 carnival starting April 18.

At the special meeting attended by 109 representatives, the Dalmiya group tabled two key suggestions, submitted in the form of a stinging memorandum signed by a whopping number of dissidents. According to the first demand, the CAB administration should set aside 70 percent of the Rs 7-crore booty (which the CAB is getting from Red Chillies for sub-leasing Eden for the seven matches) for the 121 affiliated units of the CAB. The units comprise 94 clubs, 18 districts, eight universities and the Office Sports Federation. The demand says, the amount set aside should then be put into a fixed deposit account, and the interest arising out of it annually should be distributed among the 121 affiliated units every year.

It’s the second demand, however, that’s more tricky for Mukherjee & Co. Instead of granting the CAB just 20 percent of the 86,000 tickets for every IPL match, Red Chillies should distribute the larger share of the ticket-pie with the CAB, demands the Dalmiya camp.

Sources in the CAB revealed that Red Chillies is intent on sticking to its policy of holding back 80 percent of the tickets for itself and selling them out to the public. And if the Dalmiya lobby persist with its own demand of a larger share of free tickets, then Mukherjee will be bound to get into a confrontation with Shah Rukh over this issue.

Says Dalmiya: “The CAB has no reason to keep for itself the lion’s share of the money, neither should the organisers keep for themselves a huge share of the tickets. We want the CAB to sort this matter out with the organisers (read: franchisee Red Chillies).”

Facing a fresh round of hurdles, coming from Dalmiya himself for the first time, the CAB president naturally appeared on the back-foot. “Mr Dalmiya had a lot of things to say at the meeting, and we discussed a lot of things. I will get back to the BCCI about these issues, and we will also discuss the matter with the organisers. But one thing is sure, the IPL is going nowhere out of Kolkata, we will host the matches,” Mukherjee said.

Clearly in a spot, the CAB chief it seems is now throwing the ball in the BCCI’s court, saying that he would discuss the issue of distribution of IPL funds (Rs 7 crore that the CAB will get, as per the BCCI’s letter to the state body) at the Board’s annual general meeting in September this year.

Bookmark this Page
  • Digg

    On Digg, users share intersting online content by submitting links to the site. At that point, the Digg audience can vote on whether or not they think it is interesting. Articles with lots of votes, or "diggs," rise up higher on the site's main page and topical subsection pages. Another form of social sharing, this site also lets users categorize the content they are submitting to Digg and label it with descriptions of up to 350 characters. Digg users can also submit comments on each content item submitted to the site.

    To register, go to: http://digg.com/register

    del.icio.us

    At its most basic level, del.icio.us allows users to save their bookmarks online. Del.icio.us also gives users the ability to "tag" their bookmarks with descriptive category names. For example, someone who has bookmarked multiple Web pages that deal with the Washington Nationals baseball team could tag those links with any terms they want, like "baseball," "nationals," "natsfan," etc.

    As members of a "social bookmarking" community, del.icio.us sers can also see how many other people have bookmarked the same pages, and they can look at those users' bookmark collections to find other interesting online content.

    To register, go to: http://del.icio.us/register

    Reddit

    Reddit allows users to submit news articles and other online content to the site. Users also give articles a thumbs-up or thumbs-down. Reddit then uses those votes to build a user profile and to find articles to recommend to you. Users can also submit comments on items posted to the site.

    To register, go to: http://reddit.com/login

Rate this Article
0
Rating
Ads by Google
Post Comments
Name* Email ID*
Subject* Country*
Message*
Characters remaining
 
TERMS OF USE: The views represented here are not neccesarily endorsed by www.expressindia.com and its allied websites. All messages will be moderated and no message that has inflammatory, abusive, derogatory language or any language deemed unfit for publication by the editor will be displayed. Though it will be endeavoured that as many messages as possible be displayed, there will be time lag between the submission and publication of the messages. The website reserves the right to publish or reject any message.
I agree to the terms of use.
Lord Rama destroyed the bridge, Centre tells...CPM expels Somnath Chatterjee from partyBJP expels 8 MPs, Advani terms July 22 as 'b...America will now get a free hand from UPA: L...Expulsion is CPM's 79th birthday 'gift' to S...‘Half of India doesn't vote for either Congr...
© 2008 Indian Express Newspapers (Mumbai) Ltd. All rights reserved
The Indian Express Group | Advertise With Us | Privacy Policy | Feedback | Work With Us | Site Map