Dalmiya camp to use accounts in CAB comeback bid

The Jagmohan Dalmiya lobby plans to use alleged loopholes in the accounts of the Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB) as its main weapon when it takes on Prasun Mukherjee, the incumbent CAB president, at the body’s elections on July 28.

Even the chairman of the CAB’s finance committee, Ambika Banerjee, is unhappy at the lack of transparency.

“I am surprised to see all this. How did this figure of Rs 70 lakh come into the accounts?,” Banerjee said. “The CAB shows that the figure came from the sale of institutional boxes. But it is old issue. The boxes were sold for a 15-year-period during Dalmiya’s tenure.”

He said the CAB has failed to collect over Rs 51 lakh from advertisers who put up their boards at 17 gates of Eden Gardens during the India-Pakistan test match last December, but it has shown the amount in its income.

“How did they spend over Rs 2.2 crore without discussions with the finance committee before the Test?” he asked.

Tuesday’s working committee meeting, the last before the elections, turned out to be stormy, according to sources.

According to Gautam Dasgupta, a former joint secretary of the CAB and the Board, the CAB management has to take the finance committee’s permission for any expenditure above Rs 2.5 lakh, but they did not do so.

Dasgupta alleged that the trustee board’s meeting was set for July 7, although it was known then that the chairman and some other members would not be available on that date.

Chairman Chandi Ganguly, cricketer Sourav Ganguly’s father, is in London for treatment, Siddhartha Shankar Ray is not available and Bhairab Ganguly has been too ill to attend meetings for some time now.

But Samar Pal, the CAB’s secretary, said the Dalmiya lobby is raising baseless objections.

“We have never ever gone beyond the rules,” said Pal.

The CAB’s treasurer, Tushar Sarkar, said the organisation reported an income of Rs 30 crore and a profit of Rs 5.5 crore in the last fiscal.

The Dalmiya faction is quick to point out that CAB was turned into a moneyed organisation by Dalmiya during his long tenure, and the current team is squandering funds.

As an example, they cite the revamp of the Club House before the India-Pakistan Test at short notice, without tendering. A private firm RDG Idea Pvt Ltd said it would do the job for Rs 58 lakh and later placed a bill of Rs 94 lakh.