Lalit Modi’s days as IPL chairman numbered?
Speculation is mounting as to how long Lalit Modi will remain as the IPL chairman and commissioner, with reports circulating that the competition’s chief will be asked to quit after this year’s final.
While the competition for victory between the four sides who have reached the IPL semi-finals is no doubt what most involved in Indian cricket would prefer to shine the spotlight on, issues surrounding the ownership of a team not even in this year’s competition have been jostling for a position on centre stage.
That team is Kochi, and Modi sits at the heart of the controversy after his revelations this month regarding the ownership composition of the Kochi franchise, made via his Twitter account.
The ownership storm has already prompted India's junior foreign minister Shashi Tharoo to resign from his post in response to conflict of interest allegations over his involvement with advising the winning consortium during their bid for the new franchise, after his association with one of the shareholders was revealed.
As the gas has been turned up under the cauldron of controversy, even boiling over into parliament, the heat has also been turned up on Modi, whose tweets provided the bulk of the fuel for the flames.
On March 21st the IPL announced Rendezvous Sports World as the successful bidders for the Kochi franchise, winning out with a bid of US$333million.
Then came Modi’s comments, via his twitter account on April 11th, that, “25% of kochi team is given free to Rendezvous sports for life. The same equity is non dilutable [sic] in perpetuity [sic].What does that mean? Why ? Wait”.
Minutes later the IPL chairman tweeted the following details on the franchise’s ownership composition: “Kochi shareholders are: Rendezvous 25% free, Rendezvous 1%,Anchor 27%, Parinee 26%, Film waves combine 12%,Anand Shyam 8%,Vivek venugopal 1%”. He followed that with a tweet revealing the free equity in the Kochi franchise was held by Rendezvous free equity - held by Kisan, Shailender and Pushpa Gaikwad, Sunanda Pushkar, Puja Gulathi, Jayant Kotalwar, Vishnu Prasad, Sundip Agarwal.
At a press conference in Mumbai, Modi subsequently revealed that the reason for the disclosure of the identities of those involved with the Kochi franchise ownership was, "that even those who presented the bid documents did not know who the owners were”.
What followed were allegations which were made on Indian television by Satyajit Gaekwad, CEO of Rendezvous Sports World that a week after their successful bid the Kochi that the franchise was offered $50million to “quit the game and get out.” Modi denied the allegations; and an announcement by India’s tax department that they were going to investigate the funding of the Kochi franchise, which resulted in tax officers paying a visit to the offices of the IPL and Modi’s house, as well as the office of the Kings XI Punjab.
At the same time Tharoor was defending his involvement in the Kochi franchise bid in the Indian Parliament. A couple of days later, on April 18th, the junior foreign minister stepped down from his post.
A BCCI meeting looking into the issues surrounding the Kochi franchise is now scheduled to take place on May 2nd.
If Modi is still at the helm of the IPL after the final on April 25th, his fate may well be decided there.
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