With the noose beginning to tighten around the neck of Lalit Modi, it looks increasingly likely that the prospects of Modi remaining the chairman and commissioner of the tournament look bleak. The BCCI, already seems to be making all the right noises and there is a good chance that with the federal intelligence agencies having widened the investigations to include the IPL TV rights holders, things can only become more difficult for Modi.
Rajiv Shukla, the board’s media and finance committee chairman has said that the IPL governing council’s decision, which will be taken after the April 26 meeting, would be final and there will not be any question of people opposing it.
Shukla said, “The question of people refusing to back down or not, they don’t matter.” He also added that the meeting between Shashank Manohar and Sharad Pawar had decided that the decision will be unanimous. Earlier, there were also rumours that Pawar had called upon Modi to meet him and ask him to resign but Modi refused to meet him and he has said that he will present the case in front of the governing council.
Shukla, who is also a part of the Congress party has briefed the Prime Minister and said the BCCI was ready to take tough decisions if required after its image seems to have taken a huge beating. He said that the decisions will be taken in the interest of cricket and could be as harsh as possible. He added, “…decisions would be taken to protect the BCCI and cricket’s image in the country. We have never compromised on our image in the past 60 years and there will be no compromise this time too.”
The controversy had started with Modi revealing the stakeholder’s pattern in the Koch franchise, and the role of Shashi Tharoor, the former federal minister, in attaining the same. But it has now boomeranged big time on Modi, with many of his relatives said to have had a stake in the various franchises.
It remains to be seen how the controversy unfolds, but one thing is for sure, and that is that the on-field cricket has been far overshadowed by this controversy and that after some quality cricket has been played on it!
