In 1997, Dalmiya was unanimously elected as ICC President
Jagmohan Dalmiya, perhaps the strongest man in Indian cricket administration, has died. The 75-year-old Marwari businessman from Kolkata died off a heart attack on Sunday. He was rushed to BM Birla Hospital at 9 pm on Thursday night when he complained of chest pain and breathing difficulties.
Hospital administration kept a close watch on his health. His condition remained stable for two days but on Sunday, his condition deteriorated suddenly and he died.
Dalmiya was synonymous in the power game of cricket and hardly faced defeat in complex board room battles in cricket. From his days as treasurer of the BCCI in 1983 to becoming the man who dominated the administration of world cricket, Dalmiya was the symbol of India's clout on the big stage.
When he became the treasurer of the BCCI, he transformed India's fortunes totally. Along with Inderjit Singh Bindra, Dalmiya, shifted the cricketing focus towards the sub-continent. The duo won the ICC's nod to host the 1987 and then the 1996 World Cups in the Indian sub-continent. Both events were a commercial success that established the financial power of the region.
After making the 1996 World Cup as one of the most profitable tournaments, Dalmiya aimed at the big spot, the ICC. He failed to attain the two-thirds majority necessary under the ICC Constitution even though he received 23 votes to 13 for Australia's Malcolm Gray in an election for the president's job.
In 1997, Dalmiya was unanimously chosen as president of the ICC and went on to redesign the cricket world for the next three years. During his reign as ICC boss, India became the hub of world cricket much to the envy of the major players.
In 2001, when India toured South Africa, ICC referee and former England captain Mike Denness found Sachin Tendulkar and five more Indian players guilty of a technical breach of the rules. While Tendulkar was charged with tampering the match ball, Virender Sehwag was fined for showing dissent at the umpire's decision. Harbhajan Singh, Deep Dasgupta and Shiv Sunder Das were reprimanded for excessive appealing and captain Sourav Ganguly was accused for not being able to control his players. All the players were fined 75 percent of their match fees and received one Test match bans.
The then ICC chief executive Malcolm Speed decided to back Denness while BCCI president Dalmiya decided to back his players. The result was an overwhelming win for the master 'politician' - the third Test became an unofficial one, the ban on Sehwag was upheld but Tendulkar and Ganguly were let off. Denness' career was all but over. The former England batsman served as match referee in only two more Tests and three ODIs and was not reappointed by the ICC the following year.
Often described as a 'control freak' Dalmiya was ousted from the BCCI in 2006 for alleged misappropriation of funds and refusing to provide certain documents. There was a lull after that storm and Dalmiya had slipped under the radar. However, he was back as a major player in June 2013, when he was appointed as the interim president of the BCCI after N. Srinivasan stepped aside pertaining to the probe on his son-in-law's alleged involvement in spot-fixing.