SM: From where you sit, where do you think cricket needs to go next? JD: Nobody can say for sure, as it is still very early. I see a lot of countries like India and Pakistan where cricket is moving fast towards club cricket, like league football.
SM: When you were president of the ICC, what were the main areas you wanted to improve? JD: Everything. Coaching, umpiring, and everything associated with the game, and I needed the money to do that.
SM: Can you talk about 1993 to 2008? JD: That was a great time. It seemed that every day the situation improved.
SM: Let’s go back to the finance issues. There was tremendous revenue potential in telecast rights. JD: There were, but we had to fight the Broadcasting Ministry for those rights. Our stance was simple. We believed the ministry was taking all of our money away from us by denying us the opportunity to own our
SM: Can you give me a little bit of business context in terms of Indian cricket? JD: The Indian cricket business situation was very bad. The Indian government, specifically the Broadcasting Ministry, controlled the cricket telecasts. They did not compensate the BCCI for any rights associated with telecasts. In fact, it was exactly the opposite:
These days, sports like football, baseball, basketball, and soccer are huge commercial ecosystems. In 2006, Nimbus Communications bought digital media rights for Indian cricket for $612 million in a four-year global deal, underscoring cricket’s status gain in the big-money world of sports marketing. Cricket, however, owes its commercial maturity to Jagmohan Dalmiya. Read ‘Cricket Reaches