Rajeev Shukla leads race to succeed Jagmohan Dalmiya

Jagmohan Dalmiya was a true friend of West Indies cricket and we all the time loved his firm and all that he delivered to the sport.

The 75-year-old Dalmiya, who was admitted to the city’s B M Birla Hospital on Thursday night, is survived by his wife Chandralekha, daughter Vaishali and son Abhishek.

Sourav Ganguly, Chandu Borde and Salim Durrani, among others, spoke glowingly about their memories of the Eden, while Dalmiya, impeccably dressed as always in his safari suit, observed the proceedings quietly from one of the round tables he was seated on.

A couple of years later he followed up by selling the telecast rights of Indian cricket and the Hero Cup that he had organised to celebrate the Diamond Jubilee of the Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB) and that’s when Indian cricket started its journey of becoming a profitable enterprise.

The editorial called it lamentable that “India continues to mix politics with sports, treating the honest efforts of Pakistan’s cricket administrators and ex-players for revival of the game with utter disdain”.

“Heartfelt condolences to Dalmiya Ji’s family”.

After the successful conduct of the 1996 World Cup, Dalmiya was elected ICC president in 1997 and served in the role until 2000, after which he was elected BCCI president for the first time in 2001.

Current IPL chairman Shukla had wanted to fight the BCCI presidency earlier this year, but was forced to settle for the vice president’s post later on.

News Details: After Jagmohan Dalmiya’s sudden demise due to cardiac arrest few days back the BCCI board is now getting ready to rope in a new president for their board.

ICC President and Tamil Nadu Cricket Association chief N Srinivasan arrived here tonight by a special flight to meet former BCCI president and Mumbai Cricket Association chief Sharad Pawar, who is now on a tour to drought-hit Vidarbha.

“He was a very experienced person. Till the time this meeting does not take place, it would not be appropriate to comment on this”, Shukla added. Plus, he knows that Jaitley, who will have the final say on the matter, is much closer to Shukla than to him. It is likely that Chaudhry will have the support of Srinivasan, now at odds with the BCCI dispensation. Keeping those equations in mind, one must realise that Pawar doesn’t really have that support.

The CAB and the NCC (another club where Dalmiya was the president) are two important votes that could tilt the balance not just for an East Zone nominee, but even for an outsider wanting to throw his hat in the ring. “But relations change overnight in the BCCI”, a senior board official was quoted as saying in the report.