Ehsan Mani (Top) and Jagmohan Dalmiya

Mumbai: Even as Jagmohan Dalmiya worries about the beating his image continues to take, he can draw comfort from International Cricket Council (ICC) president Ehsan Mani’s comments in Kochi on Friday morning.

Speaking to The Telegraph at the Taj Malabar, he said: “I’ve not only known Mr Dalmiya for over a decade-and-half, but have worked with him in different capacities? I never once got the impression his integrity could be questioned?”

Mani added that the issue of an FIR having been filed against Dalmiya, by Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) secretary Niranjan Shah, was raised during last month’s meeting of the ICC’s Executive Board in Dubai.

“The vice-president (Percy Sonn) brought it up as Mr Dalmiya is a former ICC president and is respected in the world body,” he pointed out.

Apparently, when the ICC wanted details of the FIR, the BCCI ? a body Dalmiya headed for three years from 2001 ? indicated that specifics would have to be obtained from the concerned police station in Mumbai.

Sonn, incidentally, is going to succeed Mani in June. While Dalmiya was the first Asian to head the ICC, Mani (whose roots are in Pakistan) is the second.

Among other things, those currently running the BCCI have accused Dalmiya of misappropriation. Following the FIR, the economic offences wing of the Mumbai police’s crime branch has already initiated a probe.

Dalmiya, it may be recalled, had been most influential in the BCCI from around 1993 till last November.

Equations changed when his candidate, the highly unimpressive Ranbir Singh Mahendra, got thrashed by Union minister Sharad Pawar in the election for the top post.

A year earlier, Dalmiya’s casting vote had ended Pawar’s bid No.1 for the BCCI presidency.