BCCI president Jagmohan Dalmiya, one of cricket’s most influential administrators who will be remembered for bringing money into the game, passed away at a Kolkata hospital Sunday evening following a massive cardiac arrest, PTI reports.
The 75-year-old Dalmiya, who was admitted to the city’s B M Birla Hospital on Thursday night, is survived by his wife Chadralekha, daughter Vaishali and son Abhishek.
“Dalmiya died of internal gastrointestinal bleeding and internal organ failure,” hospital sources said confirming the veteran cricket administrators death.
Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB) sources added: “At 6 pm, his condition deteriorated and shortly afterward, he suffered a massive cardiac arrest from which he could not recover.”
Dalmiya’s death plunged the Indian cricket fraternity into a grief as reactions poured in from former cricketers and administrators condoling his demise.
BCCI condoled the demise of its president and said the cricketing fraternity will miss the veteran administrator of the game dearly.
“On behalf of all the members of BCCI, I wish to submit our condolences to the bereaved family of Dalmiya. As a visionary and a father figure of Indian cricket, he worked towards the development of the game of cricket in India. The cricketing fraternity will miss him dearly,” BCCI secretary Anurag Thakur said.
“Dalmiya played a significant part in positioning Indian cricket at the global level and the astute administrator in him guided Indian cricket to greater heights. His untiring efforts will be remembered for generations to come and his contribution to Indian cricket will remain unparalleled,” he added.
According to the BCCI constitution, if a president’s post is vacated midway through his tenure, “the secretary shall within 15 days convene a Special General Body Meeting to elect the President who shall be nominated by at least one full member from the zone which proposed the name of the President whose term was cut short prematurely. Such person who is so elected shall hold office till the next elections.”
A long-serving cricket administrator, Dalmiya had been president of the ICC, held different offices in the BCCI, and occupied top posts in the CAB in a career that began in 1979.
Dalmiya has not been keeping well for a while now and was not actively taking part in the day-to-day functioning of the BCCI.
Dalmiya took over the reins of the BCCI for a second time in March, after a gap of 10 years, when he got a walkover in the elections. But he has been ailing since then, and his health has deteriorated further over the last few weeks.That Dalmiya’s health has been an issue was an open secret in the Indian cricket circle for quite some time after he took over the BCCI president’s post in March, this year.
Due to Dalmiya’s health conditions, it has been secretary Anurag Thakur who has called the shots.
It has been quite some time that Dalmiya has not been able to properly conduct any BCCI meetings in the near past.
In fact, Dalmiya could not coherently answer any question when he met the three-member SC appointed panel headed by Justice RM Lodha, where his son was prompting all the questions to him.There has been dissenting voices in BCCI about his failing health and recently there were calls to remove him from the post of president.