“How can I say anything on this right now?”
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Shukla also credited Dalmiya with improving the BCCI’s financial stature, adding that the country’s cricket fraternity will find it hard to recover from the loss.
He had initially made a name in the construction business, which he took over from his father at the age of 19, and joined the BCCI in 1979. When Miandad was the Pakistan’s coach, the team went to India for a series in 1999, said Dalmiya had provided great hospitality to the visiting side.
The 75-year-old was widely hailed Monday as the man who transformed India into the most powerful nation in worldwide cricket by presiding over a massive increase in TV revenues. Dalmiya sensed an opportunity. He was a strong, quiet type but very shrewd and he stood firm at a time when Australian and English officials were used to getting their own way in cricket circles.
Indian TV used to demand money to carry cricket.
The biggest complaint against Dalmiya was that he never groomed a successor.
I had gone from Ranchi to Kolkata just that morning, and couldn’t help but recall a conversation with Umakanta Jena, the head curator of the MECON Ground, where Mahendra Singh Dhoni took his first steps as a cricketer. “I don’t think a Supreme Court bench has met too many times at that hour in the night”. Constitutionally, the secretary will have to call a special general meeting to nominate a person who will remain president till the completion of the current cycle – till September 2018. Dalmiya was the president of an nearly bankrupt ICC, but his dream of spreading cricket across the world did not weaken despite the sorry state of the organisation.
Indian cricket, on the field, has opted for young blood to lead its way.
The Hindustan Times said supporters of both Srinivasan and his rival Anurag Thakur, who is BCCI secretary and the board’s de facto number two, were gearing up for battle, predicting “tricky days ahead for the BCCI“. It was proof of India’s ascendancy in the sport, reinforced by Dalmiya’s dramatic election as ICC president in 1997.
A senior member chanting “Dalmiya Amar Rahe” (Long Live Dalmiya) laid the national flag on the body as it began its final journey to Keoratala crematorium. He was still the committed administrator. Sachin Tendulkar has aptly said it in his tribute.
Dalmiya was supportive of players feeling they should be paid well as professionals. Worked hard for the game of cricket and excelled as an administrator.
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I first got to know Jagmohan “Jaggu” Dalmiya in 1996 during the ceremonies leading up to the World Cup.
