Jagmohan Dalmiya, the man who set cricket on its path to current riches

While the commercial success of the edition isn’t yet clear, even if the earnings are only moderate, cricket is already a winner since this will be the first ICC World Cup tournament to feature games in the US, the ultimate sports destination.

The International Cricket Council (ICC) will rightfully take credit for extending the footprint of the game to the lucrative American market. But this is a good time to remember the man whose dynamism and street smarts set the game on its path to its global reach.

The man in question was Jagmohan Dalmiya who changed the face of cricket forever. Born this very month in 1940, in a Marwari business family that had moved from Jhunjhunu district in Rajasthan to Calcutta, Dalmiya’s love for cricket started in school. 

With his eye set on a career in the administration of the game, Dalmiya first joined the Cricket Association of Bengal and then used his position there to move into the domestic headquarters of the game, joining the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) in 1979. By 1983, he had become its powerful treasurer.

At this time, world cricket was controlled by England with support from Australia, New Zealand and surprisingly, the West Indies. Such was England’s dominance that the first three world cups, in 1975, 1979 and 1983, were held in the country. That trend looked set to continue, notwithstanding India’s stunning win in 1983.

But Jaggu dada, as he was popularly called, had other ideas. Along with Inderjit Singh Bindra, a former Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer, and veteran Congressman and cricket administrator N.K.P. Salve, Dalmiya bid to host the 1987 World Cup in the Indian subcontinent. 

When the proposal was shot down by the English Test and County Cricket Board, Dalmiya reached out to the associate nations, promising them a share of the profits and a greater say in the game. Their votes swung the verdict in his favor and the 1987 Cricket World Cup was granted to India. 

Simultaneously, the ICC also passed a resolution saying that future hosts would be decided on the basis of a rotation system. The tournament sponsored by Reliance was a modest success but it paved the way for Dalmiya’s grand plan to change the way the game was being run.

Realizing that cricket’s future lay in the subcontinent even as his native business sense told him that untold riches lay in store for all the stakeholders if it was prised out of the asphyxiating hold of the colonial powers who hadn’t figured out how to monetize its popularity, Dalmiya now set about expanding its reach. Thus, South Africa was readmitted to international cricket in 1991 after 21 years of being suspended because of its apartheid policy.

Dalmiya, the business genius

Dalmiya’s biggest coup came two years later when he went to court against the Doordarshan. Till then, the BCCI would pay the government-owned broadcaster to televise India’s matches. 

Dalmiya demanded the freedom to sell the television rights and in 1995, the Supreme Court of India judged that these rights were owned by the BCCI and the cricketing body could sell them to the highest bidder.

But it was the 1996 World Cup that established Dalmiya’s business genius. Rights to the tournament, hosted jointly by India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka, were sold for $10 million and with equally lucrative deals for sponsorship, the ICC earned a whopping $50 million. 

The co-hosting of the World Cup brought into play an Asian block and Dalmiya leveraged its growing clout to be elected, in 1997, as the president of the ICC, becoming the first Asian in the role. In 1998, he organized the first ICC KnockOut Trophy, now known as the Champions Trophy, in Bangladesh, earning the ICC $20 million, and culminating in the host country becoming the 10th test-playing nation in 2000.

Soon after, Dalmiya became the BCCI president. Under his presidency, the board began the practice of awarding contracts to Indian team players, and pensions to former cricketers and umpires. The money was now flowing into the game and Dalmiya ensured that all those associated with the game benefitted.

He did suffer a setback some years later when in the December 2005 elections to the BCCI board, his candidate, Congress leader Ranbir Singh Mahendra from Haryana, lost to Sharad Pawar. Following that, Dalmiya was expelled from the board for alleged misappropriation of funds.

The wily old fox wasn’t quite finished yet. He challenged his expulsion in the Bombay High Court and then the Supreme Court, and two years later he was exonerated. Elected BCCI president for a second time in 2015, Dalmiya however succumbed to ill health and passed away in Kolkata in September 2015.

It is no exaggeration to say that the game is richer for his role in it.