As a recognition of his contribution to the world of sports, former BCCI President Jagmohan Dalmiya has been selected, alongwith FIFA boss Sepp Blatter and former International Olympic Committee chief Juan Antonio Samaranch, to receive the International Journal of History of Sport achievement award.
The three were selected from a list of 250 internationally acclaimed scolars of sports from around the world after a rigorous screening process, IJHS said in a release on Tuesday.
The awards will mark the 25th anniversary of IJHS, a journal on sports studies, which is published by the Taylor and Fransis Group, an international publishing house.
"They have helped to change the face of the world in the last 25 years through sport and the IJHS is proud to honour them as the foremost statesmen of modern century in the last quarter century," the release said.
The first of the three award functions would be held in Kolkata on July 15 in the presence of distinguished scholars from around the globe, it added.
On Dalmiya, who is the President of the Asian Cricket Council and a former International Cricket Council chief, IJHS said "an adroit administrator and entrepreneur, he engineered the commercialisation of cricket in India and made the BCCI the richest cricketing body in the world.
"As ICC President from 1997 to 2000, he masterminded the globalisation of cricket. The vast revenue he generated from sponsorship and broadcasting rights prompted the Wall Street Journal to describe him as 'the man who converted cricket into a multi-million dollar industry'.
"He has also mounted peace initiative through cricket, such as his campaign to have South Africa re-admitted to international competition in 1991," IJHS said.
It said the 69-year-old Blatter, who has served FIFA for 23 years, had played a leading role in developing football into a global sport.
"An early advocate of youth football, educational programmes, indoor football and competitions for women, he has presided over five World Cup comeptitions and has secured worldwide sponsorship for the event."
On the 84-year-old Samaranch, IJHS said as the President of IOC from 1980 to 2001, he turned the Olympic Games into a global sporting phenomenon.
"When he became its President, the IOC was a discredited and impoverished organisation. He sought to reform it by increasing the number of participating nations and securing global sponsorship and broadcasting contracts for the Games.
"In his effort to modernise the IOC, he put it at the forefront the fight against apartheid and doping, and encouraged the participation of professional athletes."
