Active Stocks
Thu Mar 28 2024 15:59:33
  1. Tata Steel share price
  2. 155.90 2.00%
  1. ICICI Bank share price
  2. 1,095.75 1.08%
  1. HDFC Bank share price
  2. 1,448.20 0.52%
  1. ITC share price
  2. 428.55 0.13%
  1. Power Grid Corporation Of India share price
  2. 277.05 2.21%
Business News/ Industry / Jagmohan Dalmiya, BCCI president, dies at 75
BackBack

Jagmohan Dalmiya, BCCI president, dies at 75

Dalmiya passed away following a cardiac arrest

BCCI president Jagmohan Dalmiya. Photo: HTPremium
BCCI president Jagmohan Dalmiya. Photo: HT

Kolkata: Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) president Jagmohan Dalmiya, who made Indian cricket a self-sufficient entity and engineered a shift in the power base of the sport from its spiritual home at Lord’s in England to Kolkata’s Eden Gardens, died in a Kollata hospital on Sunday evening after suffering a massive cardiac arrest.

Dalmiya, 75, had been admitted to BM Birla Hospital on Thursday night following complaints of chest pain, and later underwent a coronary angiography.

In a chequered administrative career, he saw it all: the good, the bad and the proverbial ugly. If Kerry Packer’s World Series Cricket was a revolution that rocked the traditional cricket establishment of Australia, it was the astute businessman from Kolkata who understood the potential of India becoming commercially a global powerhouse of cricket.

His biggest gift to Indian cricket was to strike a multi-million television deal with WorldTel in the early 1990s that went a long way in making the BCCI the richest cricketing body in the world. A shrewd tactician and someone who was at forefront of the BCCI numbers game, Dalmiya was the brain behind India co-hosting the Reliance World Cup in 1987 and then the Wills World Cup in 1996.

In a 35-year administrative career that began after being elected as a Cricket Association of Bengal working committee member from the Rajasthan Club, he also served as treasurer and subsequently the secretary of the body.

A protege of former BCCI president B.N. Dutt, he became treasurer in the mid 1980s and was known as the man who convinced N.K.P. Salve to allow Eden Gardens host the Reliance Cup final at the Eden Gardens instead of Wankhede Stadium. He along with friend-turned-foe Inderjit Singh Bindra also defeated the England and Australian block to win the bid for co-hosting 1996 edition in India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.

In 1997, he was elected unanimously as president of the International Cricket Council. In 2001, he defeated A.C. Muttiah to become BCCI president in one of the most pitched elections in Chennai. In one of the most political fights in the BCCI, Dalmiya gave a casting vote in favour of his candidate Ranbir Singh Mahendra to defeat Union minister and Nationalist Congress Party heavyweight Sharad Pawar by a solitary vote.

However, the quartet of Pawar, N. Srinivasan, Shashank Manohar and Lalit Modi, with the backing of Bindra, came back next year to not only defeat Mahendra, but also opened cases against him. He was suspended from the BCCI in 2006 and also ousted from his home association. Dalmiya won a long legal battle and got his place in the state association back.

When the Twenty20 spot-fixing scandal broke, he was the first consensus candidate for the interim president’s post and earlier this year once again took the BCCI president’s mantle after a gap of 10 years.

Unlock a world of Benefits! From insightful newsletters to real-time stock tracking, breaking news and a personalized newsfeed – it's all here, just a click away! Login Now!

Catch all the Industry News, Banking News and Updates on Live Mint. Download The Mint News App to get Daily Market Updates.
More Less
Published: 20 Sep 2015, 09:37 PM IST
Next Story footLogo
Recommended For You
Switch to the Mint app for fast and personalized news - Get App