Prathamesh Basagare, Pune
Sunil Dev, India’s manager who led the cricket team to victory in the 2007 T20I World Cup, passed away. He was 75 years old when his demise was revealed following a protracted illness. He served as the former secretary of the Delhi & District Cricket Association (DDCA).
Sunil Dev is survived by his wife and children. He spent several years working for the DDCA, and during his time as the governing body’s sports administrator, he also served on subcommittees for the BCCI (Board of Control for Cricket in India).
However, one of his most significant professional accomplishments was at the inaugural T20I World Cup in South Africa. Besides being the team’s administrative manager in 2007, Sunil Dev also served in the same capacity on India’s tours of South Africa in 1996 and England in 2014.
Sunil Dev attained positions of enormous authority while working for the DDCA, to the extent that a Ranji Trophy squad might be discharged without his consent. Sunil Dev had become a significant figure for the BCCI, and his demise prompted many of his admirers to express their sympathies.
Dev, a natural storyteller, embodied the good, the terrible, and the ugly of the DDCA. With his opposing viewpoints on various DDCA policy matters, he had the ability to polarize opinions, making both allies and enemies of him. No Ranji Trophy or age-group squad could be announced between 1990 and the new century’s first decade without his agreement.
Prominent journalist James Astill, the Asia Editor of The Economist, wrote about his encounter with Dev and how his explanation and theatricals around ticket sales for a particular game at the Kotla delighted him in his highly praised book “The Great Tamasha.”
Many tales concerned Dev’s working method, but some eventually turned into urban myths. If he were in a relaxed mood in the company of scribes, he would narrate stories about how a 17-year-old named Virat Kohli learnt to drive in his SUV.