Revision as of 13:29, 24 September 2015

Jagmohan Dalmiya

A brief biography

The Times of India, Sep 22 2015 

Born May 30, 1940, into a Marwari family in Kolkata

Went to Scottish Church College, Kolkata

Played for Jorabagan and Rajasthan Club as a wicketkeeper-batsman in CAB league

Lost his father at the age of 19 and joined the family's construction firm ML Dalmiya and Co

Married Chandralekha with whom he had two children, daughter Baishali and son Avishek

Made an entry into the Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB) in 1977 as treasurer

Made a low-key entry into the BCCI in 1979

CAB secretary from 1981-82 to 1984-85

Became BCCI treasurer in 1983

Joined hands with IS Bindra and then BCCI president NKP Salve in 1984 to move the World Cup out of England. The Reliance Cup was co-hosted by India and Pakistan in 1987.

CAB president from 1992 to 2007; 2008-15

Elected BCCI secretary in 1992

Joined hands with Bindra and fought legal battle with Prasar Bharati that paved way for BCCI to sell telecast rights of IndiaEngland series in 1992-93 to TWI for Rs 18 lakh.

Dalmiya and Bindra took on the ICC in a bid to England and Australia's stranglehold on world cricket. In 1996, Dalmiya defeated Australia's Malcolm Gray 23-17 in an election for the ICC chairman's post but was not allowed to head the body as he had fallen short of a 23 majority.

Headed the Pakistan, India, Lanka Committee (PILCOM) which successfully hosted the 1996 World Cup in the subcontinent.

In 1997, became the first ICC president from Asia. When he took charge, the ICC only had £16000 in its coffers. When his term ended in 2000, the ICC had over $15 million.

Became BCCI president in 2001 and held office till 2004.

Tasted his first electoral defeat in 2005 when his candidate Ranbir Mahendra was routed by Sharad Pawar and Co.

Expelled in 2006 by BCCI for alleged financial irregularities pertaining to the 1996 PILCOM funds. Lost CAB top post.

Returned at CAB helm in 2007.

Named “caretaker“ administrator when N Srinivasan stepped aside following the IPL scam in 2013.

Became BCCI president for second time after being elected unopposed in March 2015.

As the BCCI President

India Today

Kunal Pradhan

March 5, 2015

Dalmiya's dramatic comeback 10 years later shows the BCCI just doesn't learn

Jagmohan DalmiyaInside the dark corridors of power inhabited by the high and mighty of the Board of Control for Cricket India (BCCI), there is a saying that 'the harder you fall, the higher you bounce'. But even the smart alec who appropriated this adage from a faux Confucius-style Chinese proverb would not have accounted for the rise, fall, disappearance into oblivion, and phoenix-like resurrection of Jagmohan Dalmiya.

For someone like me who followed the machinations of Indian cricket closely in the late 1990s and early 2000s, it once seemed Dalmiya's mischievous grin, and the glint in his eyes as he tackled a series of difficult situations, would continue to rule Indian cricket forever. Back then he was a physical manifestation of everything that was wrong with how the sport was run-the lack of transparency, the honorary office-bearers who revelled in their titles rather than their performance, and the tyranny of favours that kept the flock together. If BCCI was the Death Star, Dalmiya was Darth Vader.

But while India saw him as a symbol of the Establishment, for the rest of the cricket world, run from the posh Long Room at Lord's or the airy balconies of the Melbourne Cricket Ground, Dalmiya was not just an outsider; he was a usurper. As India woke up to its potential as cricket's premier economic power, defiantly taking on the ICC at the drop of a hat and licking its lips in anticipation of the next opportunity to fling the gauntlet, Dalmiya was seen by the international media as an icon of India's designs of world domination. He was not a 'Lord' or a 'Sir', he was Jagguda-a Marwari builder who once kept wickets for Rajasthan Club in the Calcutta maidans and cricket's old gentry would not have that. They wanted to give him "a jolly good boot up his derriere, preferably into the Indian Ocean". But contrary to his perception of being a madman in the quest for absolute power, Dalmiya was shrewder, more charming, and more flexible, than the rest of the world realised. His mission to globalise cricket could not be argued with. And his hold over the Associate members, coupled with his ability to convince the original members that, like it or not, cricket's financial future lay in the East, transformed the sport forever.

Dalmiya's fatal flaw, as with most tragic heroes, was that while he was reaching for the stars above, he did not realise that the ladder was being pulled from under his feet. He had made Indian cricket so big so suddenly that other interested parties could no longer let him keep it all for himself. What followed was his removal in 2005 at the hands of Sharad Pawar and his underlings led by the now-ostracised Lalit Modi. As Dalmiya battled court cases, criminal proceedings and smear campaigns, he became persona non grata in the BCCI -destined to crawl into his cave until the people who had knocked him over would, eventually but inevitably, turn on each other. So almost 10 years later, when Indian cricket is going through another churning following the Mudgal Committee report and a Supreme Court order cutting its overbearing lord and master N. Srinivasan down to size, almost by default Dalmiya has stepped into the spotlight once more. Now 74, slower and less boisterous than he was in his heyday, it's ironic that he has emerged as the messiah at a time when Indian cricket needs to be saved from a culture he had himself created. The conflicts of interest and financial muddle overseen by Srinivasan & Co is just the worst-case scenario of a system that Dalmiya had put in place. The only difference, perhaps, was that while he understood 'cricket' was more important than 'control' in the BCCI abbreviation, his successors somehow forgot that.

While he may have been slightly better than those who followed him, Dalmiya's return to the helm only takes Indian cricket back to square one. It is a remarkable story of perseverance and discretion in valour, considering he has been nominated by roughly the same set of people who had ousted him, but it also means that there is little hope for the BCCI-an unscrupulous, insular behemoth that laughs in the face of reform and cocks a snook at transparency. A new culture can be put in place only by new people who think differently. A cricket board where faces never change, only circumstances do, will forever be doomed to opaqueness and tyranny.

Breaking DD’s cricket monopoly

The Times of India, Sep 22 2015

IS Bindra

Jaggu helped break DD's cricket telecast monopoly

I remember today my long innings with Jagmohan Dalmiya from 1980-1996, when we worked together to lay the solid foundations of Indian cricket and built it into a global powerhouse. In 1984, under the leadership of NKP Salve, we moved the World Cup out of England to give South Asian cricket fans the excitement and glory of the 1987 Reliance World Cup. We succeeded in eliminating the English and Australian stranglehold on global cricket and made the International Cricket Council (ICC) a truly representative and democratic global polity . Those were also the days when we earnestly laid the foundations of making Indian cricket the commercial force it is today by breaking the monopoly of Doordarshan as the sole broadcaster of Indian cricket.

This was not as easy as it looks today . It took patience, perseverance and mental strength to fight the monopoly all the way up to the Supreme Court of India. The Court issued a landmark judgment in 1994 which catalyzed the satellite broadcasting industry in India.

Indian cricket was further strengthened in 1994 when we successfully won the right to host the second World Cup in the subcontinent. The 1996 World Cup introduced many elements of global marketing to Indian cricket. As such it set the stage for what is a given in this day and age of Indian cricket.

Jaggu's passion, energy and dedication was instrumental in achieving this all. He was an able cricket administrator and I, along with millions of cricket lovers around the world, salute his commitment and dedication to the game.