Inderjit Singh Bindra, one of Indian cricket’s most influential administrators, passed away in New Delhi on Sunday. He was 84.
Best known nationally for his stint as BCCI president between 1993 and 1996, Bindra’s deeper roots lay in Punjab. He led the Punjab Cricket Association from 1978 until 2014, a 36-year stretch that saw the Mohali ground—later renamed after him—rise from a patch of farmland to a regular international venue. It even hosted the fractious 2011 World Cup semi-final where India edged Pakistan in front of both nations’ prime ministers.
Colleagues still credit Bindra, alongside N K P Salve and Jagmohan Dalmiya, with prising the 1987 World Cup away from England’s stranglehold. The trio convinced an initially sceptical ICC that India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka could stage a tournament of that scale. It was a watershed: money flowed east and, just as importantly, decision-making influence followed.
Security worries nearly derailed those plans. Amrit Mathur, then India team manager, recalls that Australia and England threatened to pull out when Indo-Pak tensions spiked in 1986. Bindra, a career bureaucrat with a colourful contacts book, suggested Pakistan’s military ruler General Zia-ul-Haq cross the border for a “cricket diplomacy” visit, easing nerves enough to keep the schedule intact.
Relations with Dalmiya were rarely smooth yet, collectively, they ensured the 1996 World Cup also returned to the sub-continent. Bindra later became a close adviser to Sharad Pawar during the latter’s term as ICC chair, extending his influence well beyond India.
Paying tribute after Dalmiya’s death in 2015, Bindra had written: “cricket fans the world over need to remember the modern game and the way it is currently administered would have been very different had it not been for Jaggu.” The sentiment now loops back on itself: Indian cricket, and arguably the global game, would look markedly different without Bindra’s mix of diplomacy and doggedness.
Funeral details are yet to be announced. What’s beyond dispute is the administrative legacy he leaves—a modern stadium in Mohali, two World Cups on home soil and, perhaps most enduring, the belief that the sub-continent deserved a central seat at cricket’s top table.
