Bengaluru, May 3: Former Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) chief selector Kishan Rungta died of coronavirus (COVID-19) at a hospital in Jaipur.
The ex-Rajasthan and Central Zone captain was 88.
The veteran cricket administrator had tested positive for COVID-19 last week and breathed his last on Saturday (May 1).
"Former Rajasthan first class cricketer and ex-national selector Kishan Rungta has died of COVID-19," a BCCI source told PTI news agency.
Kishan Rungta former captain of Rajasthan and Central Zone and chairman of the Indian selection committee is no more. Lost the battle to Covid at a hospital in Jaipur. #COVIDSecondWaveInIndia @AmritMathur1 @gulu1959 @sardesairajdeep @rajanmahan pic.twitter.com/976xT0f1wx
— Rameshwar Singh (@RSingh6969a) May 1, 2021
Rungta served as a selector from Central Zone in three phases for eight years and was also the chief national selector in 1998.
He played 59 first class games between 1953 to 1970, for both Maharshtra and Rajasthan, scoring 2,717 runs with five centuries.
His late elder brother Purushottam was a BCCI treasurer in the 1970s. Purushottam's son Kishore held the same position in the early 2000s.
The Rungta family dominated Rajasthan cricket for nearly five decades before Lalit Modi beat them in the elections and wrested control in mid 2000s.
Born in 1932, the right-handed batsman scored 2,717 runs in 59 first-class matches with five centuries.
He had played first-class cricket for both Maharashtra and Rajasthan between 1953 and 1970.