The Indian T20 League must be suspended immediately to enable a root-and-branch shake-up of both the League and the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), former commissioner Lalit Modi said on Thursday.
“There should be a government enquiry and the franchises of Rajasthan Royals and Chennai Super Kings should be terminated, so that there can be a thorough clean-up at the top-level,” Modi told HT. “This is a real big bubble – we don’t know how many people are involved or how deep the whole thing runs.”
Modi said the twin inquiry into the BCCI and the League must be conducted by a “really strong person,” naming former BCCI presidents Shashank Manohar and IS Bindra as two men who could do the job.
Modi also believes the Tamil Nadu government needed to order a probe to examine if the BCCI had flouted any provisions of the Tamil Nadu Societies Act, under which it was set up. “The central government too has a role to play. I myself am looking at the Societies Act rules right now,” he said.
Modi has no faith in the International Cricket Council, the game’s governing body, to conduct a probe. “If for the last three weeks they have been unable to make a statement on the IPL, then it is clearly a toothless body. I am in shock and despair – it’s a buddy-buddy club.”
Modi has no faith in the International Cricket Council, the game’s governing body, to conduct a probe. “If for the last three weeks they have been unable to make a statement on the IPL, then it is clearly a toothless body. I am in shock and despair – it’s a buddy-buddy club.”
Modi, who has been in London since fleeing India in 2010, said, "when I ran the Rajasthan Royals I wouldn’t allow any wrongdoing. We were constantly tracking things and I was under constant threat by bookmakers – my phone was tapped.”
“I ran a tight ship. We were educating the team, and everybody was afraid of the action I would take. I can’t go back to India now because there have been three assassination attempts on me.”