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Out on Saturday, Srinivasan bats on on Sunday — with a runner to boot.

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On a day when N Srinivasan was supposed to step aside, a group of invertebrates purportedly representing India’s billion cricket fans decided that they should stand down instead — and let him rule.

Jagmohan Dalmiya, cricket’s eastern opportunist, has been prevailed upon to take up Srinivasan’s duties, but not his title. Post BCCI’s emergency working committee meeting, Srinivasan remains president.

So what will Dalmiya be called? “You call him ‘interim’ or ‘working’ president, but fact is that Srinivasan is still our president and he will call the shots in the day-to-day affairs,” confessed a senior BCCI office-bearer.

Even the reasonably descriptive term “interim president” has been done away with in the press release. Srinivasan was aware that the Sharad Pawar group would object to the BCCI appointing an interim president. The BCCI constitution has no provision for such a post.

The release was drafted in a manner that it should stand in the court of law, should the Pawar group go legal, dropping the term ‘interim president’. It is learnt that Arun Jaitley, the board’s legal luminary, had prepared the text. Jaitley, it might be recalled had asked his captain to walk, on moral grounds, just a few days ago.

Srinivasan brazened through Sunday, and was not even asked to reconstitute the panel that is supposed to look into the spot-fixing scandal involving his son-in-law and possibly him. The two Tamil Nadu judges appointed earlier will remain. A third member will be appointed, so Srini’s “home advantage” remains intact.

Srinivasan came well prepared. In a meeting that Arun Jaitley and Anurag Thakur joined via video-conference from New Delhi, he briefed board members about why they had assembled. Before anybody could ask him to resign, he himself offered to step aside, but insisted that he had done no wrong. One official insisted that the meeting was farcical, illegal and unconstitutional. Srinivasan agreed: “I know it’s illegal, but  I had to convene this meeting so that I could meet you all.” As Surinder Khanna, former India opener, said on air: “It must have been the most expensive lunch that the BCCI ordered till date.”

The meeting was held at the ITC Sheraton Park, a five-star property.

West zone vice president Niranjan Shah and central zone vice president Sudhir Dabir were seated next to Srinivasan.

Jaitley proposed Dalmiya’s name. Only IS Bindra called for Srinivasan’s resignation. Sanjay Jagdale and Ajay Shirke were also requested to take back their resignations. Both have asked for time, but it is highly unlikely that either will be back.

Dalmiya suggested that the IPL now be held only in 2015. “He suggested that we take a break. No IPL in 2014. You need a year to clean up the mess,” an official said of Dalmiya’s proposal. He also wants cellphone jammers in stadiums, no cheerleaders, no strategic timeouts and no presence of owners anywhere near the players/dugout. No decision was taken on any of these suggestions.

Dalmiya may have mouthed his platitudes in Chennai, but having him run affairs for now was just the kind of arrangement that suits Srinivasan. Had someone like Shashank Manohar taken over, president Srinivasan wouldn’t have slept very well.

That Manohar chose to opt out of the meeting made it easier for him to push for Dalmiya.

Srinivasan’s equation with Dalmiya — he once called him a toothless tiger — is as good an illustration of Lord Palmerston’s “in politics there ar no permanent friends and no permanent enemies” insight.

When Dalmiya was being questioned for alleged misappropriation of BCCI and Pilcom funds, it was Srinivasan who documented all the evidence and planned his ouster. But he was also instrumental in offering Dalmiya amnesty, giving the former BCCI president another innings in the BCCI. Srinivasan suggested that the case wasn’t heading anywhere and did not make legal sense anymore. As Srinivasan’s just appointed runner, it is Dalmiya’s turn to reciprocate. He is doing so by being boss “only on paper”, says a BCCI official.

A president of a state association called the meeting a sham. “The working committee doesn’t have the power to sack or remove the president. You have to convene a general body meeting for that. Truth is he (Srinivasan) will still call the shots,” he said.

Dalmiya is 73, and may have more ambition than energy. He has had minor nerve problems, but is fine overall. However, in his prime, through the mid-90s and early 2000s, his energy level was the stuff of myth. There was a time when he would shuttle between Malaysia and Bangladesh and make a stopover to Dubai, all in a single day. A CAB official recalls the mini World Cup that was held in Bangladesh in 1998. His flight was delayed and Dalmiya was stranded in Dubai for about 14 hours. He called a CAB official and wanted to know if he could travel by road and somehow reach Bangladesh.

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