He breathed his last at 11.45pm yesterday at the National Heart Institute where he had undergone treatment for the past three weeks.

His wife of 38 years, Kaldip Kaur, said she had not spoken with Harjit over the last two weeks because he was heavily sedated.

She said it was unfortunate that their sons, Dr Rajinder Singh and Gurdip Singh, who are both in Australia, would not be able to pay their last respects due to Covid-19 travel restrictions.

“Everybody loved my husband. He was a helpful man who never turned down anyone who sought his assistance,” said Kaldip.

Condolences poured in for Harjit, including a tweet from the Crown Prince of Johor, Tunku Ismail Sultan Ibrahim, whose family knew him well since the time he was the family doctor during the reign of the late Sultan Iskandar.

Ravi Nambiar, the chief press officer of the Sultan of Johor, said Sultan Ibrahim Sultan Iskandar took a personal interest in Harjit’s condition after he was hospitalised.

He said Harjit met him a month ago to inform him that he was to have a pacemaker inserted in his heart, adding: “He was tearing up as he spoke and asked me to pray for him.”

One of the most celebrated figures in his sport, Harjit was an inspiration to many and devoted his life to developing young people on and off the cricket pitch.

He was revered as a shepherd of the sport, dedicated to discovering new talent and nurturing young cricketers.

As president of the Johor Cricket Council from 1986 until his demise, Harjit was the longest-serving president of a sports association in the country.

As president of the Johor Sikh Sports Club, he was devoted to the welfare of his community and often joined forces with the Royal Malaysia Police Sikh Sports Association, Johor branch, to raise funds for the development of football, hockey and cricket in the state.

The ever-sprightly Harjit was inducted into the OCM Hall of Fame in 2017 in recognition of his services to the nation as a cricket player and administrator.

Close friends described Harjit as a “gem and kind-hearted man” who pulsed with explosive energy and embraced the virtues of a great sportsman and a leader.

They said Harjit embodied grassroots development and that his achievements illustrated the visionary he was in creating opportunities for the growth of cricket.

Former sports journalist Randhir Singh said: “Harjit was a rare breed of hands-on sports leaders who dedicated his life to cricket and other sports.

“He was a passionate sports fan and a sports person at heart.”

Randhir related an incident when Harjit went to the home of former Johor menteri besar Ghani Othman at 7am to seek help for cricket in the state.

He said: “Ghani told me Harjit was in tears when he requested financial aid to build a cricket academy.

“Ghani had faith in him to boost the popularity of the sport, and later allocated land for what became the first cricket academy in Southeast Asia.”

An exciting chapter was added to the extraordinary story of Harjit’s career in 1998 when the academy on 5.6ha at Taman Mutiara Rini became a reality.

The facilities at the academy enabled the state to host the International Cricket Council Under-19 World Cup in 2008.

After being made a Hall of Famer, he told this writer: “By creating opportunities, you develop the keenness of players, go on to broaden the base and finally improve standards.”

He lamented then that the lack of sporting facilities and the neglect of school sports today was the bane of Malaysian sport.

Seeing schools as the heartbeat of sports, Harjit pioneered the Kancil Programme “Catch ‘em Young” in 1987.

The aim was to popularise cricket in primary and secondary schools in the state, ensure teachers were properly trained in the sport and to raise its standard in the country.

A cricket revolution was born and Harjit soon entrenched his reputation as a game changer.

The scheme batted off with 17 schools in Johor Bahru but today, it has spread to some 200 schools in 11 districts.

Schools in rural Johor including Felda schemes got a taste of cricket.

Randhir, who accompanied Harjit during cricket carnivals in rural areas, said: “Families loved him and young boys enjoyed themselves batting and at the nets.”

The development programme helped produce many top cricket players for Johor and Malaysia while the state juniors were the best team in the country.

Harjit, deputy president of the Malaysian Cricket Association from 1990 to 2003 and chairman of development, then went national with the programme.

That cricket is not considered an elite sport did not stop Harjit from pushing forward with the help of sponsors.

He was a master fundraiser and a personal experience with him in 2016 showed the respect people had for him.

He picked up on a suggestion to raise money to send the father of national high jumper Nauraj Singh Randhawa to the Rio Olympics to watch his son in action.

Harjit made some calls and in less than an hour, he raised RM5,000 and within days the donations ballooned, and Nauraj’s father, Amarjit, got his dream of being at Maracana Stadium.

His love for cricket stemmed from his father Meva Singh, an ex-Selangor and Kilat Club cricketer.

A former student of English College Johor Bahru, Harjit learnt to score at the age of five, earned his personal bat at six and came under the watchful eye of the late legend Mike Shepherdson at the Kilat nets in Pantai.

He was a star player in his teens, representing the state in 1966 and continued playing into the late 1990s.

When he returned home in 1980 after medical studies in India, Harjit was a national player until a knee injury ended his competitive playing days.

Since then he honed, toned and burnished cricket to an A-list shine.