This story is from January 21, 2021

Former CAB joint secy Dey joins Trinamool

Former CAB joint secy Dey joins Trinamool
Kolkata: Cricket administrator Biswarup Dey on Wednesday took the Trinamool Congress flag from his “mentor”, MP Sudip Bandyopadhyay, saying chief minister Mamata Banerjee’s spirit “to throw opponents out of the pitch” had drawn him to the party. Along with Dey, 125 others too joined Trinamool.
Dey shot into prominence as a sports administrator under the guidance of Jagmohan Dalmiya.
A lawyer by profession, Dey followed the path taken by his father Bhupendra Kumar Dey, who also served Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB) in various capacities. Dey too occupied important positions in CAB as treasurer and joint secretary. He was the administrative manager of Team India during its 2015 tour of Australia. However, his long-term ambition of becoming CAB president went up in smoke when CM Banerjee named Sourav Ganguly to the post after Dalmiya’s death.
“You may ask me why TMC? I am a man from the cricketing world. It is about spirit. I was drawn to the party by Mamata Banerjee’s spirit. Her indomitable spirit to keep working for people, whatever be the circumstances. To me she is like Gavaskar, who kept hitting even the fiercest West Indian pace bowling attack out of the pitch,” Dey said. “Like in cricket, we are here to see the team through till the end. This state is ours; Bengal is ours,” he added.
Dey’s joining TMC comes a few days after BCCI president Sourav warded off queries on his “political future” after Bengal BJP leaders expressed willingness to accept him into their party fold. To add to this, Sourav’s family friend and former Left Front minister Asoke Bhattacharya had remarked, when the former India captain was in hospital, that he had advised him against joining politics for “not all can handle the pressure of politics”.
In CAB circles, Dey is seen as an opponent of Sourav. Dey had to leave CAB after the Supreme Court-appointed Lodha panel recommendations made him ineligible to hold office. Dey became Alekhine Chess Club president at Gorky Sadan. He also threw in his hat for Indian Football Association (IFA) secretary post, but later withdrew the nomination. He contested for Bengal Olympic Association general secretary’s post, but lost to Jahar Das in December 2020.
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