India get new cricket president

By Subir Bhaumik
BBC correspondent in Calcutta

Mahendra was backed by outgoing president Dalmiya

India's powerful Board of Control for Cricket has selected a new president - Ranbir Singh Mahendra.

He won the election by one vote - with outgoing president Jagmohan Dalmiya casting the decisive vote in his favour.

The vote was delayed for several hours over a row about who should conduct it.

A retired judge, Justice S Mohan, had arrived to conduct the poll in Calcutta but Dalmiya refused to let him run the proceedings.

Afterwards Mahendra said: "It was a closely contested election but I am happy to have won."

The leadership of the board is one of the most powerful posts in the game.

Cricket attracts three quarters of all sports advertising in India and millions watch the national team's games on TV.

Confident

There was confusion earlier on Wednesday as retired Supreme Court Justice Mohan arrived at a Calcutta hotel for the board's annual general meeting.

He was to oversee the election in keeping with an order from a judge in the Madras High Court.

Mr Dalmiya refused to accept a judge's jurisdiction over the poll

However, Dalmiya objected and secured a delay to proceedings.

The Madras High Court subsequently ruled in favour of Dalmiya, saying the judge should not be involved.

Dalmiya and his supporters gave their backing to Mahendra, the current board vice-president from the northern state of Haryana.

Mahendra told journalists in Calcutta he wanted cricket to be free of politicians.

He said he was confident of his victory and claimed he would get at least 17 of the 31 votes in the election.

His rival, Pawar, also campaigned fiercely.

He was nominated for the presidency by the cricket association of northern Punjab state.

The state's cricket board chief, IS Bindra, is an old rival of Dalmiya and Mahendra.

Afterwards he complained about Dalmiya's influence.

Pawar said: "In this match, the bowler and the umpire was the same man.

"The casting vote itself indicates what the plan was.

"The time has come to give a serious thought to the process of elections."

Many cricket associations in India are headed by Congress party politicians or those supporting the ruling coalition in Delhi.

Separately, a cricket club in Madras has filed a case challenging the board's appointment of Dalmiya as patron-in-chief.

The city's civil court accepted the Barathi club's petition and set 11 October as the hearing date.

Patron-in-chief is a new role for the board and experts say it will allow Dalmiya to continue as a key figure in Indian cricket.