The shrewd businessman brought to cricket administration its first Machiavellian touch. Jagmohan Dalmiya broke the monopoly of the English-Australian axis, seizing the right to host the 1987 World Cup in India and Pakistan. He broke the Doordarshan monopoly holding back Indian cricket, starving it of funds. Along with Punjab’s I.S. Bindra, the Cricket Association of Bengal head broke the stranglehold of “maharajas” and industrialists who had dominated Indian cricket from colonial times.
Dalmiya ascended to the top in the ICC by garnering the votes of full and associate member countries. He was the principal driving force behind bringing South Africa back into the cricket fold. A stickler for hard work, he aced BCCI activities with a thorough knowledge of regulations, a mastery of its politics and familiarity with the devil in the small print.
Winning the players over by giving them a cut of BCCI revenues, Dalmiya ruled Indian cricket with an iron hand, recruiting Sourav Ganguly as skipper to bring order to the team. It is a pity then that, due to his worsening medical condition, he was a pale shadow of himself in his last term as compromise BCCI president when the Supreme Court slammed the door on N. Srinivasan.
Dalmiya’s contribution to Indian cricket will be remembered for a long time.
