NEW DELHI (AFP) - Veteran Indian cricket administrator Raj Singh Dungarpur died on Saturday, aged 73, after a long battle with Alzheimer's disease, the Indian cricket board said. Dungarpur served Indian cricket as team manager and chief selector, before becoming president of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) for three years from 1996 to 1998. It was under Dungarpur's reign as chief selector that Sachin Tendulkar, now the world's most prolific batsman, made his Test debut aged 16 during a tour of Pakistan in 1989. Dungarpur played first-class cricket between 1955 and 1971 as a medium-pacer, claiming 206 wickets in 86 matches. He also headed the prestigious Cricket Club of India in Mumbai, which owns the Brabourne stadium, for 13 years before he quit the club last year due to illness. "It is a great loss to Indian cricket," BCCI president Shahshank Manohar said in a statement. "He served Indian cricket diligently and with distinction, in several capacities. He was a self-effacing individual who always put the sport, and Indian cricket in particular, above everything else. "His contribution to Indian cricket for more than 30 years can never be forgotten."