Jagmohan Dalmiya passes away
Jagmohan Dalmiya, the man responsible for reviving cricket and making it profitable passed away on 20 September 2015 in Kolkata. He was 75 years old. Dalmiya had been admitted to the hospital after suffering a heart-attack. Jagmohan Dalmiya had been a towering figure in BCCI since 1979 (when he first joined it), making the board one of the wealthiest cricket boards in the world.
Jagmohan Dalmiya hailed from Calcutta and joined the BCCI in 1979, where he wielded control from the very beginning. In 1983, he was made BCCI's treasurer, the first important post he held. BCCI selected him as the secretary in 1990, and he was re-elected to the same post two more times in 1993 and 1996.
Hailing from a business family, his father's firm ML Dalmiya and Co. was one of India's top construction firms and constructed the Birla Planetarium in 1963 in Kolkata.
In the ICC Chairman election in 1996, Dalmiya got 23 votes to 13 against Australia's Malcolm Gray. However, he missed out on becoming Chairman as he could not attain the two-thirds majority needed under the ICC Constitution. In 1997, Dalmiya was unanimously elected President of the ICC (as the position had been renamed), an office that he held till 2000.
Jagmohan Dalmiya was the first Asian to be elected the President of International Cricket Council in 1997.
Jagmohan Dalmiya took over as the President of the Board of Control for Cricket in India after his assignment with the ICC came to an end in 2001. He served as the BCCI President till 2005. Under his presidency, the Indian cricket team began to employ foreign experts and coaches. Former New Zealand captain John Wright became the first foreign coach for India.
In 2005, Jagmohan Dalmiya was ousted from the BCCI for alleged " misappropriation" of BCCI funds. The charges against him were dismissed in 2007 by the Calcutta High Court as the BCCI could not prove the charge of financial irregularities against Dalmiya. Following the dismissal, he contested for the Presidency of Cricket Association of Bengal in 2007, which he later won.
Dalmiya made cricket a game of wealth by bringing the World Cup to India in 1987 and 1996.
On 2 March 2015, Dalmiya returned as the President of BCCI after a gap of 10 years and said that "It's a victory for the cleansing of cricket." Dalmiya got the support of all 6 associations from the east zone that were voting. Before this, he had served as the interim president from June - October 2013 when N. Srinivasan had stepped aside.
