Mahendra, Dalmiya meet PM to plead for tax exemption

New Delhi:Top Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) officials today (May 5, 2005) met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to request for tax exemptionfor next year's International Cricket Council (ICC) Champions Trophy scheduled to be held in India.

The BCCI president Ranbir Singh Mahendra and former president Jagmohan Dalmiya met the Prime Minister at his chamber in the Parliament House and discussed the issue.

The Prime Minister has assured the Board officials that he will look into the matter.

"The Prime Minister has assured us that he will look into the matter. It was a very positive meeting which lasted for about 15 minutes," Dalmiya said in New Delhi.

"We are quite satisfied with the meeting and are hopeful that we will get the tax exemption," he said.

The ICC had made it clear that the prestigious tournament would be relocated out of India if the government did not grant tax exemption to the competition to be held in 2006.

The ICC president Ehsan Mani and top BCCI officials had earlier met Finance Minister P Chidambaram and Sports Minister Sunil Dutt to pursue their case.

The last ICC Champions Trophy was held in England in 2004.