/ 27 April 2010

IPL’s Modi defiant despite suspension

Ipl's Modi Defiant Despite Suspension

Suspended India Premier League (IPL) boss Lalit Modi has urged cricket fans to give him time to clear his name, maintaining his defiant stance over corruption allegations that have overshadowed the lucrative tournament.

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), which owns the IPL, suspended Modi over claims of corruption, tax evasion and money-laundering that have sparked a government investigation.

“I am still chairperson of IPL. Just suspended. Wait — we have just begun,” he wrote on microblogging website Twitter late Monday.

Modi (46) was also removed as a BCCI vice-president and as chairperson of the T20 Champions League, a separate club tournament organised jointly by India, Australia and South Africa.

He has been given 15 days to reply to the allegations put to him by the BCCI, which will then conduct its own probe to be completed in six months.

In a previous Twitter post, Modi threatened to “reveal the men who have tried to bring disrepute to the game”.

BCCI chief Shashank Manohar, asked if he was worried about Modi spilling the beans, responded: “If there are others also involved in wrongdoing, they too will be punished.

“We will not spare anyone,” he said. “The IPL is a very valuable property for us and it needs to present a clean image.”

The IPL — based on the shortened Twenty20 format and modelled partly on English football’s Premier League — has attracted the sport’s top international stars.

Modi ran the event like a one-man show from its inception three years ago, raising fears that without him the multibillion-dollar tournament could suffer from lack of direction.

Continuity
The BCCI has moved quickly to try to ensure continuity.

Businessman Chirayu Amin, one of five BCCI vice-presidents and a veteran cricket administrator, was appointed to head the tournament’s governing council as interim chief.

Modi, the scion of a wealthy north Indian business family that owns, among others, the Godfrey Phillips cigarette company, will not be short of work if he is kept out of the BCCI.

His prominent father, KK Modi, came out in support for his beleaguered son.

“Lalit is the most brilliant and intelligent member of the family and has created something no one has been able to do so far, the IPL,” the 73-year patriarch told the Times of India.

The seeds of Modi’s downfall were sown two weeks ago when he revealed the ownership details of a new franchise set to join the glitzy and globally popular IPL in 2011.

He embarrassed a high-profile member of the government, Junior Foreign Minister Shashi Tharoor, by leaking on Twitter how Tharoor’s girlfriend had been given a free stake in the new team.

Under pressure from the opposition, which accused Tharoor of misusing his office to secure benefit for himself, the minister was forced to resign, embarrassing the Congress-led government.

The IPL’s third edition was won by the Chennai Super Kings on Sunday and the tournament’s fourth edition is scheduled to be held in April-May next year. — AFP