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Board of Control for Cricket In India (BCCI) president Jagmohan Dalmiya has passed away in a Kolkata hospital, just days after he was admitted following a heart-attack. 75-year-old Dalmiya has been widely praised across the country for his efforts in taking the game to the masses of India during his first tenure as an administrator. He is survived by a son and a daughter. Dalmiya, who hails from a Marwari family in Kolkata had a brief stint in cricketer during his younger days but it will be his role as an administrator that he will be remembered by.
Dalmiya started in foray in Indian cricket way back in 1979 and grew through the ranks. His time with Indian cricket also saw the team rise in stature and enter the household of close to a billion people. Dalmiya got widespread praise by officials and former cricketers across the world for the vision that he had for the game. The 1990s, with Dalmiya operating at the top, Indian cricket received his biggest fillip. The decade coincided with the ascendency and the star power of Sachin Tendulkar reach astronomical levels on and off the pitch. With Dalmiya’s influence, the game went on to attract a of advertisers and subsequently expanded the coffers of the BCCI. Dalmiya stood for being the president in the International Cricket Council (ICC), cricket’s apex body. He was elevated to the post in 1997 and spent three years there.
While his ouster in 2005 for misappropriation of funds will be a blot on his record. In 2007 though, the Calcutta High Court absolved him of all charges. Dalmiya was instrumental in bringing South Africa back on the cricketing map after they were banished during the apartheid years. He organised for India to play the Proteas, marking their comeback. With Sri Lanka being named a forbidden territory during the civil war years, Dalmiya assured the world that the Emerald Isles was indeed a safe place to play cricket and India played matches before the start of the 1996 World Cup.
An incident where he played a major part was the ‘Mike Denness episode’ during India’s tour of South Africa in 2001. Several Indian cricketers were accused of ball-tampering and excessive appealing during the series and the match referee was subsequently banished from standing in the final match of the series, which turned out to be a friendly contest. The love-hate relationship that he had with fellow Calcuttan and former Indian captain Sourav Ganguly was also one of the major talking points in his career. He had just assumed office for yet another term earlier this year and was admitted in KM Birla hospital days ago. He breathed his last there as India lost one of the pioneers for making the country the powerhouse of the cricketing world.
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