In his words, “Eventually it was at 1.30am in the morning at Justice Verma’s residence that we got the order to sell Indian cricket’s telecast rights”. West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee and former India captain Sourav Ganguly were among those in attendance.
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However, the senior official feels that the convening of the Special General Meeting isn’t directly related to the Srinivasan issue.
Much before anyone had an idea, Dalmiya had the conviction that Indian cricket can be sold like a hot cake.
His body was kept at the Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB) on Monday, before the funeral at the Keoratala crematorium. In 1984 under the leadership of NKP Salve we moved the World Cup out of England giving South Asian cricket fans the excitement and glory of the 1987 Reliance World Cup.
Dalmiya was born on May 30, 1940, in a Kolkata-based Marwari family. Although Assam president and BCCI vice-president Gautam Roy attended Choudhary’s meeting, his association is yet to commit and so is Tripura. But being said that, the global Cricket Council (ICC) president will never be out of the picture.
The intense leadership battle in the BCCI after Jagmohan Dalmiya’s demise has taken a new turn with known foes and former Board chiefs N Srinivasan and Sharad Pawar holding a surprise meeting in Nagpur. As of now, a contest looks likely as Shukla and Pawar appear keen to throw their hat into the ring.
In 1997, Dalmiya was unanimously elected as president of the ICC and he remained at the post for the period of three years.
“While I was the one who was interacting with the BCCI, it wasn’t Anil Kumble’s stance”.
Tollywood actress Rituparna Sengupta also paid her last respects to Dalmiya. It was proof of India’s ascendancy in the sport, reinforced by Dalmiya’s dramatic election as ICC president in 1997. “Till the time this meeting does not take place, it would not be appropriate to comment on this”, Shukla added.
“The BCCI, though expressing its willingness to send the Indian cricket team to the UAE for a full series in December this year, has been clearly undermined by the strong anti-Pakistan stance of the Narendra Modi government”. For instance, Thakur – formerly a Srinivasan loyalist – changed allegiance during the last elections and is now closer to Pawar, but treasurer Choudhury remains a Srinivasan man.
“One has to calculate well and according to the current situation, Shukla is the most favoured candidate”.
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It has been learnt that Thakur has called up members of few of the eastern unit factions to check what’s in their mind as he is pitching for Rajeev Shukla’s name for presidency.
