British broadcast engineer working on IPL 2026 games found dead in Mumbai

A broadcast engineer by the name of Jan William Langford was found dead in his hotel room situated in South Mumbai, police have said on Tuesday, March 31. The 76-year-old was in the country working for the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) on the current Indian Premier League (IPL) season. 

According to reports, Langford was found unconscious in his hotel room on Monday, March 30. Following the discovery, the broadcast engineer was taken to the Bombay Hospital by the hotel staff, where he was declared dead after his arrival.

According to the hotel officials, the broadcast engineer was last seen entering his hotel room No. 2715 on Sunday, March 29. When a staff member tried to get in touch with him the next morning, there was no answer, which prompted the management to use the master key to open his room, only for them to find him unconscious. 

At the time of writing, the cause of death is unknown to the general public. According to the Marine Drive police station, however, a detailed postmortem report has suggested that there was nothing suspicious about the death of the British engineer. 

A case suggesting unnatural death has been registered, with the authorities doing further enquiries and investigation into the unfortunate incident that has clouded over the ongoing IPL tournament. 

Langford was staying at the Trident Hotel in Mumbai from Tuesday, March 24, four days before the 2026 IPL commenced in Bengaluru, with defending champions Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) taking on Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH). Rajat Patidar’s side would open their title defence with a six-wicket victory on home soil.

The next game of the tournament was played at Mumbai’s iconic Wankhede Stadium between hosts Mumbai Indians (MI) and Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR). The five-time champions secured their first win of the new season when they defeated the Bengal-based side by six wickets. That was the day Langford was last seen in his hotel.