New Delhi, Jan. 16 -- Kamal Morarka, Union Minister of State in the Prime Minister's Office of Chandra Shekhar in 1990-91, businessman, and cricket administrator died on Friday, aged 74, after brief illness.

As a cricket official, he opposed the decision to ban Mohammed Azharuddin and other cricketers in the match-fixing scandal in 2000, and later called the decision to ban them "total sham".

Morarka was also a Rajya Sabha member from Rajasthan from Janata Dal (Secular) from 1988-94.

Born in a Marwari family on 18 June 1946, Morarka was a lively man and never minced words.

As a vice-president of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), from 1996-2005, Morarka had strong views on certain issues, specifically on the match-fixin...