Threatened Bindra dares Dalmiya to a 'public debate'

Inderjit Singh Bindra, former President of the Board of Control for Cricket in India, who claimed in Mohali on Saturday that he and his wife had been separately threatened, challenged Jagmohan Dalmiya, the President of the International Cricket Council to have a "public debate" with him on various issues including match fixing.

Addressing a press conference, Bindra said that Dalmiya, instead of making personal attacks like stating that he (Bindra) was mentally sick, should have replied to the main issues of match fixing, betting, manipulation of players and privatisation of cricket in the garb of globalisation, raised by him.

Bindra, who is also the President of Punjab Cricket Association, said that Dalmiya could have a debate at any public platform and then let the public judge as to "who has lost his mental balance".

The press conference was scheduled for 1 pm but Bindra did not come to address it. In his place, MP Pandove, secretary of the Punjab Cricket Association circulated a statement on behalf of Bindra, stating that he and his wife had "separately received threats aimed at my young children".

A large number of media persons, who assembled at the PCA stadium here, after being told in the morning that Bindra would address a press conference pressed that he himself should address the media. The PCA officials first expressed ignorance about the whereabouts of Bindra, but when newsmen persisted, they succeeded in establishing contact. All the media persons decided to wait when Pandove informed them that Bindra, who had been located, would reach by 2.30 pm but he arrived shortly after 3 pm.

Bindra said, "ever since the present controversy, which has rocked international cricket broke, because of my honest outspokenness, I have been living with threats to my personal being. It was no coincidence, then, that just before the start of the Delhi press conference called by me on April 19, that me and my wife received threats aimed at my young children". He said that since the ``threats'' were a "sensitive issue" he would not like to say much, except that he had informed the concerned authorities and he had not got additional security. ``The best policy is not to yield to threats," he said. The callers were clever people not to leave any identification, he told a questioner adding that the calls appeared to have come from outside the country.

Reacting to yesterday's statement of Dalmiya against him and the threats to his wife and himself, Bindra said "We reserve the right to claim defamation or launch criminal proceedings against the concerned people in consultation with our solicitors". He said that the needle of suspicion in the threats case is against "real people behind the match fixing scam and who are a handful of cricket administrators and others with ``vested commercial intrests". None of them has yet replied to or denied any of the charges made by me, Bindra said adding that all that they are doing is casting aspersions on me.

He further said that Dalmiya, instead of using "such language and stooping so low" should have replied to the main issues. "The language used by Dalmiya yesterday is used in street brawls and not in the game of cricket", he added. He also said that Dalmiya had also not replied as to why cricket is played in smaller countries, which do not have proper associations and money is not ploughed back into the game. He alleged that about 85 percent of the earnings from cricket tournaments in Kenya and Sharjah go to middlemen.

Bindra also alleged that the PCA as well as the Orissa Cricket Association are being given step motherly treatment by the BCCI whether it is allotment of matches or any other issue. "No amount of threat can deter me from my crusade", he added. Reacting to what he described as an "outburst of Mr P M Rungta,'' Bindra said, "I am amused to note that in the past four days he has changed from praising me to casting aspersions. Anybody even remotely linked with cricket knows Rungta's track record and I do not think I need to add anything further to this".