Howzaat! Pawar rejects Brijesh olive branch, won’t attend KSCA function

Jan 19, 2007

B D NARAYANKAR

Bangalore: The Karnataka State Cricket Association’s sudden move to felicitate five former greats of the game has run into trouble, with BCCI president Sharad Pawar reportedly expressing his reluctance to preside over the function.

KSCA’s decision to honour Erapalli Prasanna, G R Vishwanath, B S Chandrashekar, Syed Kirmani, and Roger Binny on January 28 was being seen as a masterstroke by beleaguered KSCA secretary Brijesh Patel.

Insiders said Patel, a former close confidant of Jagmohan Dalmiya, wanted to get into the good books of Pawar, now that Dalmiya has been expelled from BCCI for life. But Pawar has conveyed his unavailability to attend the programme in view of the municipal elections in Maharashtra.

Pawar, however, told over phone from New Delhi that he had not rejected Brijesh’s invitation, but conveyed his availability on a later date. “I am busy with the local bodies election in Maharashtra,’’ he said.

The controversial move to honour the five greats—two of whom, Vishwanath and Binny, are also members of two separate KSCA committees—was also being seen as a timely move on the eve of the KSCA elections due later this year.

Honouring the five with a Rs 5 lakh cheque was seen as Patel’s way of keeping them on his side. “He has been in power for eight years. Why did it take him this long to realise that these players deserved the honour?” asks a KSCA source. “Couldn’t he have honoured them when he honoured Rahul Dravid and Anil Kumble?” With Pawar not coming, some executive committee members, owing allegiance to former Congress MP Srikantadatta Narasimharaja Wodeyar who wants to contest against Patel, want the KSCA to go ahead with the function. The Wodeyar camp sees the felicitation as a move by Patel & Co to worm their way into the good books of Pawar & Co.

“Brijesh had enjoyed all the benefits in the cricketing world when Dalmiya was BCCI president, but he voted against Dalmiya who was expelled from BCCI. During Dalmiya’s period, Brijesh was made the manager of Indian cricket team for the World Cup in England, NCA director and chairman of selectors,” says a former Karnataka selector.

“The KSCA is a divided group and Brijesh has become wobbly and he pretty well knows he cannot continue in the present saddle without Pawar’s support. Therefore, he is trying to shift his allegiance to Pawar,’’ he adds.

Wodeyar followers are confident that Pawar will not accept the invitation for the simple reason that Brijesh has been vocal against him.

At one point of the time, he even called Pawar a “puppet” of N Srinivasan, BCCI treasurer and Tamil Nadu Cricket Association secretary. “Brijesh’s relations with Srinivasan have worsened, and Pawar doesn’t forgt that easily,” a source said.

When contacted, BCCI secretary Niranjan Shah preferred to be tight-lipped. “Shah’s silence is a strategy of the Pawar group not to offend Brijesh for the time being, considering his vote against Dalmiya,’’ a source said.

Umpire A V Jayprakash preferred to remain silent. Brijesh Patel refused to admit that Pawar had rejected the invitation. “There is no truth in it. In fact, he will attend the function by the end of February or first week of March,” he told.

Asked why it took nearly eight years to felicitate the five Karnataka greats, Brijesh said: “Every event has its own time. The KSCA decided to felicitate Chandra and Prasanna after the board bestowed them lifetime achievement awards. We also wanted to felicitate Vishy, Roger and Kiri in the same function.’’