Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI)Vice-President Chirayu Amin was today appointed as the interim Chairman and Commissioner of the Indian Premier League (IPL) to oversee the conduct of the high-profile Twenty20 league hours after its chief Lalit Modi was suspended late last night,pending an inquiry into various alleged wrongdoings.Addressing mediapersons during a press conference, Manohar said he was not happy with Lalit Modi’s explanation on the entire IPL controversy. Suspension of Modi was necessary to conduct a free and fair enquiry, he said. 
If Modi’s reply convinces the board, the enquiry proceedings against him will be dropped, Manohar added.
Lalit Modi was early on Monday suspended as the IPL commissioner and issued a show-cause notice capping two weeks of raging controversy over financial wrong-doings in the hugely popular cricket tournament. The interim chief of the IPL is Chirayu Amin, the head of the Baroda Cricket Association,and Vice-President of the IPL’s parent body,the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI).
A suspension notice and a 34-page letter stating 22 charges of impropriety were served last night, via email, to Modi, seconds after the Chennai Super-Kings won IPL3. The flamboyant Modi has been accused of, among other things, accepting a multi-million dollar kickback while assigning the telecast rights for IPL matches, and attempting to rig the bids for the two new IPL teams that were auctioned last month.After the meeting of the IPL Governing Council, BCCI president Shashank Manohar said,“The chargesheet was discussed…we also asked Ratnakar Shetty to look into the records because many documents are missing from the IPL office…everyday, the income tax department is asking for them and we don’t have them.”
Modi has 15 days to respond to the charges against him. If his reply “is convincing, the proceedings will be dropped,” said Manohar. Otherwise, the BCCI will begin a formal internal inquiry against Modi.
To those that question why the BCCI has waited so long to pin Modi down, Manohar responded, “In any public organization, the organization functions on trust. Each and every person can’t go and look into each and every document in the organization. If you are expecting all members of the Governing Council to come here from 10 am till 10 pm each day, then we don’t need the other staff.”
As an example of deals struck by Modi that seem suspicious, Manohar said the board has found significant irregularities in the ownership pattern of the Rajasthan Royals.He claimed that the most public faces of the team, Bollywood actress Shilpa Shetty and her businessman husband Raj Kundra, don’t even figure in the shareholding papers.
“We are asking Modi, how can he sign an agreement with A when the bid came from B. Modi made a statement that the entire world knows who the shareholders are but the fact is that not even the Governing Council members know about Rajasthan Royals. I did not find the names of Shilpa Shetty and Raj Kundra in the papers and they claim to be stakeholders,” he revealed.
For IPL 4, Manohar said a committee of former cricketers Sunil Gavaskar, Ravi Shastri and Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi will decide the modalities.By suspending Modi last night, the BCCI ensured that he would not be able to attend this morning’s meeting. Manohar claims that “As the tournament was on, we didn’t want tournament to be disrupted or create any disturbance for tournament.”The decision came after Modi added yet another twist to the high-drama IPL tale, stating, on twitter, that he would chair the Governing Council meeting. Modi had earlier said he would not attend the meeting.The only members of the Governing Council who were not at Monday’s meeting were Modi, politician Farooq Abdullah,who said he needs to be in Parliament.
Speaking to media immediately after his suspension last night, Modi said, “Are they so scared of me attending the meeting?Are they so scared of the truth?”Modi has 15 days to respond to the 34-page chargesheet.At the closing ceremony for IPL 3 last night,Modi channeled his quintessential bravado to assert that he is the undisputed leader of the IPL and that no financial misdeeds were committed.Referring to himself as“Captain of the team”,he said that all deals had included the approval of the Governing Council.Are they afraid of the truth?
The members of that governing council don’t quite see it that way.They stress that Modi functioned as a lone ranger, striking deals that benefited largely himself. For example, the council says it was not privy to Modi’s complicated negotiation of the telecast rights for IPL matches for which an 80 million dollar“facilitation fee” or commission was paid by Multi-Screen Media (MSM) to World Sports Group (WSG),which held the global broadcast rights. Modi, who brokered that deal, is accused by the BCCI of siphoning off a part of this money.(Both MSM and WSG have emphasized that the commission was a part of their official contract,and that no financial rules were broken. Income tax officials investigating the deal believe that at the very least, 140 crores in tax is due for that giant commission).It seems like IPL–Money & Honey,But No Cricket.So,Let’s wait and see what happens once the IPL Season4 will begin.:)
