Joginder Singh Sharma turned back nervously to deliver the third delivery of the final over in the match. At the other end, Misbah-Ul-Haq waited. Pakistan still needed six more runs to win the first World Twenty20 Championship. As Sharma ran in on that fateful evening on September 24, 2007, little did he know that his delivery would change the course of Indian cricket forever.
Ironically, when the Twenty20 format first started gaining popularity in 2003, the Board of Control for Cricket in India was not every enthusiastic about this new format. It was much more television-friendly than the one-day version ‒ and almost unrecognisable from traditional five-day Test matches.
There was no Indian representation in the International 20:20 Club Championship (an early prototype of the Champions League T20). When the inaugural World T20 Championship came around in 2007, the BCCI’s interest in the tournament was evident from the team they had sent – a team missing all its big stars, captained by a young wicket-keeper from Ranchi named MS Dhoni.
But India’s euphoria when Misbah-Ul-Haq failed to clear the infield, only to find Sreesanth grabbing a high catch, prompted the BCCI to look at Twenty20 in a different light. It was evident that this new format could revolutionise cricket in India. The BCCI wanted a slice of the pie. To make that happen, Lalit Modi, the BCCI's vice-president, was summarily appointed the Indian Premier League chairman and commissioner.
The rise of Modi
Lalit Modi, by then, had worked his way up the BCCI ladder. Involved in broadcasting from the 1990s, he found his way into cricket administration when he was elected the President of the Rajasthan Cricket Association in 2004. In 2005, when Sharad Pawar ousted Jagmohan Dalmiya as BCCI President, Modi was duly give the vice presidency.
Modi had dreams of creating a franchise league right from the early ‘90s, by which businessmen would bid for the right to assemble teams that would represent certain geographic areas. At that point, Twenty20 was nowhere on the anvil and the tournament was supposed to be based on the ODI format. That plan had come to nought, but in 2007, flush after the success of a World T20 title, Modi finally had the means and opportunity to bring his dreams to fruition.
The initial hurdle was the Indian Cricket League, a rebel breakaway Twenty20 league created by the Essel Group, launched in October 2007, just a month after India won the World T20 title. The BCCI dealt with the upstart swiftly – they refused to recognise the ICL and started treating everyone associated with the ICL as pariahs. On the other hand, preparations were afoot to start their own Twenty20 league – the Indian Premier League.
In September 2007, ESPNCricinfo broke the news that an International Twenty20 league had been launched. The league would be called the Champions League Twenty20 and it would be run by the cricket boards of India, Australia, England and South Africa. The top two teams from each country’s existing T20 domestic competition would compete in the tournament. The total prize for the tournament was an eye-popping $5 million – an amount unheard of for a domestic cricket competition. It was an early indication, pointing to the magnitude of what the BCCI was planning.
Those heady days of euphoria...
The marriage of cricket and Bollywood finally took place on January 24, 2008, when the owners of the eight city franchises were announced. With the likes of Shah Rukh Khan, Preity Zinta and Mukesh Ambani buying franchises, it became clear that this would be a tournament unlike anything India had ever seen before. The vast sums of money involved – the total value of the entire franchise auction was $723.59 million – justified the BCCI’s faith in Modi. The player auction that followed raked in additional funds.
Modi was omnipresent in the IPL. In the first three seasons, he would be a distinctive figure in almost every IPL match – standing in his dark suit, talking on his phone, sorting out one matter after another. The IPL was his baby and he ensured that he micromanaged everything to the smallest details, not willing to take the chance that anything could go wrong. Journalist Samanth Subramanian ,in a piece titled The Confidence Man, published in The Caravan, wrote that:
Modi’s reputation was further boosted when in 2009, he engineered a masterstroke of sorts. With the Indian government refusing to provide security to the IPL because it was being held around the same time as the national elections, Modi shifted the entire tournament to South Africa where it was played amidst cheering crowds. The entire process of transfer took only a month or so, a feat which considerably added to his stature. BBC went on to proclaim him as ‘cricket’s answer to Don King of boxing or Bernie Ecclestone of Formula One’
…and the fall
Unfortunately, those heady days of euphoria would prove to be short-lived. In 2010, Lalit Modi’s simple act of tweeting the names of the stakeholders of the Kochi Tuskers Kerala franchise set off a chain of events that would come back to singe both him and Shashi Tharoor, who was then a minister in the United Progressive Alliance government. Amidst allegations of impropriety, Modi was suspended from his post as IPL chairman and commissioner.
Things progressively got bleaker for Modi. In 2010, the Enforcement Directorate of India issued a so-called blue corner notice against Modi – a notice that has not been withdrawn. He was accused of serious contraventions of foreign exchange law. It all seemed to have come full circle when the BCCI finally imposed a life ban on him after a Special General Meeting in September 2013.
For his part, Lalit Modi has remained defiant. He has claimed that there is a conspiracy to undermine him, master-minded by N Srinivasan, the current International Cricket Council chief and previous president of the BCCI. He continues to be active on social media, making various allegations against the current cricketing dispensation.
Amidst the various hues and controversies that have surrounded his very eventful life, one thing is clear: Lalit Modi does not go quietly, he takes others along with him. Shashi Tharoor proved to be the first political casualty. Will Sushma Swaraj be the second?
We welcome your comments at
letters@scroll.in.
Ironically, when the Twenty20 format first started gaining popularity in 2003, the Board of Control for Cricket in India was not every enthusiastic about this new format. It was much more television-friendly than the one-day version ‒ and almost unrecognisable from traditional five-day Test matches.
There was no Indian representation in the International 20:20 Club Championship (an early prototype of the Champions League T20). When the inaugural World T20 Championship came around in 2007, the BCCI’s interest in the tournament was evident from the team they had sent – a team missing all its big stars, captained by a young wicket-keeper from Ranchi named MS Dhoni.
But India’s euphoria when Misbah-Ul-Haq failed to clear the infield, only to find Sreesanth grabbing a high catch, prompted the BCCI to look at Twenty20 in a different light. It was evident that this new format could revolutionise cricket in India. The BCCI wanted a slice of the pie. To make that happen, Lalit Modi, the BCCI's vice-president, was summarily appointed the Indian Premier League chairman and commissioner.
The rise of Modi
Lalit Modi, by then, had worked his way up the BCCI ladder. Involved in broadcasting from the 1990s, he found his way into cricket administration when he was elected the President of the Rajasthan Cricket Association in 2004. In 2005, when Sharad Pawar ousted Jagmohan Dalmiya as BCCI President, Modi was duly give the vice presidency.
Modi had dreams of creating a franchise league right from the early ‘90s, by which businessmen would bid for the right to assemble teams that would represent certain geographic areas. At that point, Twenty20 was nowhere on the anvil and the tournament was supposed to be based on the ODI format. That plan had come to nought, but in 2007, flush after the success of a World T20 title, Modi finally had the means and opportunity to bring his dreams to fruition.
The initial hurdle was the Indian Cricket League, a rebel breakaway Twenty20 league created by the Essel Group, launched in October 2007, just a month after India won the World T20 title. The BCCI dealt with the upstart swiftly – they refused to recognise the ICL and started treating everyone associated with the ICL as pariahs. On the other hand, preparations were afoot to start their own Twenty20 league – the Indian Premier League.
In September 2007, ESPNCricinfo broke the news that an International Twenty20 league had been launched. The league would be called the Champions League Twenty20 and it would be run by the cricket boards of India, Australia, England and South Africa. The top two teams from each country’s existing T20 domestic competition would compete in the tournament. The total prize for the tournament was an eye-popping $5 million – an amount unheard of for a domestic cricket competition. It was an early indication, pointing to the magnitude of what the BCCI was planning.
Those heady days of euphoria...
The marriage of cricket and Bollywood finally took place on January 24, 2008, when the owners of the eight city franchises were announced. With the likes of Shah Rukh Khan, Preity Zinta and Mukesh Ambani buying franchises, it became clear that this would be a tournament unlike anything India had ever seen before. The vast sums of money involved – the total value of the entire franchise auction was $723.59 million – justified the BCCI’s faith in Modi. The player auction that followed raked in additional funds.
Modi was omnipresent in the IPL. In the first three seasons, he would be a distinctive figure in almost every IPL match – standing in his dark suit, talking on his phone, sorting out one matter after another. The IPL was his baby and he ensured that he micromanaged everything to the smallest details, not willing to take the chance that anything could go wrong. Journalist Samanth Subramanian ,in a piece titled The Confidence Man, published in The Caravan, wrote that:
During the IPL, Modi’s micromanaging became legendary. “In the corporate world, a micromanager is usually a bad manager, but Modi has to be the exception,” the ESPN executive said. “I’ve seen him handle something like ticketing. In theory, he wasn’t supposed to be involved in something like that. But at the minutest level, he was looking at who was being given a free ticket, what type of ticket was being given.
Modi’s reputation was further boosted when in 2009, he engineered a masterstroke of sorts. With the Indian government refusing to provide security to the IPL because it was being held around the same time as the national elections, Modi shifted the entire tournament to South Africa where it was played amidst cheering crowds. The entire process of transfer took only a month or so, a feat which considerably added to his stature. BBC went on to proclaim him as ‘cricket’s answer to Don King of boxing or Bernie Ecclestone of Formula One’
…and the fall
Unfortunately, those heady days of euphoria would prove to be short-lived. In 2010, Lalit Modi’s simple act of tweeting the names of the stakeholders of the Kochi Tuskers Kerala franchise set off a chain of events that would come back to singe both him and Shashi Tharoor, who was then a minister in the United Progressive Alliance government. Amidst allegations of impropriety, Modi was suspended from his post as IPL chairman and commissioner.
Things progressively got bleaker for Modi. In 2010, the Enforcement Directorate of India issued a so-called blue corner notice against Modi – a notice that has not been withdrawn. He was accused of serious contraventions of foreign exchange law. It all seemed to have come full circle when the BCCI finally imposed a life ban on him after a Special General Meeting in September 2013.
For his part, Lalit Modi has remained defiant. He has claimed that there is a conspiracy to undermine him, master-minded by N Srinivasan, the current International Cricket Council chief and previous president of the BCCI. He continues to be active on social media, making various allegations against the current cricketing dispensation.
Amidst the various hues and controversies that have surrounded his very eventful life, one thing is clear: Lalit Modi does not go quietly, he takes others along with him. Shashi Tharoor proved to be the first political casualty. Will Sushma Swaraj be the second?