The senior board member firmly says that accusations against BCCI of using their financial muscle in the game are false. “There is a lot of talk about ICC bowing down to BCCI or IPL. What is the ICC?” he asks. “It is merely a board represented by member nations. It is the member boards who run the ICC and not the ICC that runs the member boards. It is a collective decision taken by member boards that calls for the new directives,” he says.

In fact, Bindra goes on to add that with Sharad Pawar as ICC president in 2010, Lalit Modi as IPL commissioner and Bindra as principal advisor, it won’t be a BCCI show. “In the past, we’ve had Australians as president and CEO simultaneously (Malcolm Gray and Malcolm Speed). What is such a big deal if it is India today,” he says.

The recent confusion over Imtiaz Patel’s appointment as ICC CEO, his refusal to accept the post and the subsequent embarrassment to the ICC was supposedly a result of Patel rejecting a mere administrative post. “Again, this is media speculation. You need to respect his decision, whatever his reasons are. The ICC will begin the process again,” says Bindra.

So would he have moved to Dubai had he been offered the CEO’s post? “That’s one reason I didn’t take the job,” he says with a smile.