Jagmohan Dalmia, who brought riches to Indian cricket, died
Kolkata, Sep 20: At the height of his career, it used to be said that Jagmohan Dalmiya could sell a refrigerator to an Eskimo. Such was the marketing genius of the man, who brought money to Indian cricket and replicated the success when he became the first Asian to head the game's global body. Seasoned cricket administrator Dalmiya, 75, who died on Sunday, was also known for his resilience, with even his detractors acknowledging that he had it in him to swim back to the shore if thrown deep into the sea, or could rise like the proverbial phoenix from the ashes. The septuagenarian's almost unbelievable comeback earlier this year as the head of the country's premier cricket body BCCI, which had once ignominiously thrown him out, only reinforced the notion. Born in a business family in 1940, Dalmiya was a club-level cricketer. He kept wickets for two teams - Jorabagan and Rajasthan - in the (then) Calcutta cricket league, and switched to cricket administration after hanging up his gloves. Dalmiya became BCCI treasurer in 1983 - the year India won the World Cup. The wily businessman didn't take much time to understand that huge money could be brought to the game from telecast rights, and teamed up with his then friend and later big foe I.S. Bindra to bring the cricket World Cup out of the British soil for the first time in 1987, as India and Pakistan co-hosted the hugely successful Reliance Cup.
