Indian Premier League Commissioner Lalit Modi on Friday rejected allegations that Pakistani cricketers were deliberately snubbed at the players' auction and blamed the entire furore on media bias.
Pakistani civil society groups and political and religious parties on Thursday protested the perceived snub of the country's cricketers in the auction for the lucrative Indian Premier League tournament in India, even as an association of cable television operators said they would boycott its broadcast.
The Enforcement Directorate is likely to book former IPL chairman Lalit Modi under the stringent Prevention of Money Laundering Act, which gives the Directorate the power to arrest and attach properties.
Board of Control for Cricket in India secretary N Srinivasan was mum on whether he would recuse himself from proceedings against Lalit Modi but lashed out at the suspended IPL commissioner for his "habit of leaking information" to the media.
The BCCI top brass will meet officials of the sports management firm IMG on Monday to seek details of the financial dealings during suspended IPL Commissioner Lalit Modi's tenure.
Suspended IPL commissioner Lalit Modi on Saturday responded to the first showcause notice served to him for alleged financial irregularities with a staggering 12,000-page reply which was carried into the BCCI headquarters in six large cartons.
Suspended IPL commissioner Lalit Modi has questioned the authenticity of the sources used by BCCI to press charges against him and said the board's reluctance to reveal the identity of the alleged source is illegal and unjustified.
The accounts of the Indian Premier League's third edition, after which its Commissioner Lalit Modi was suspended, would be taken up for discussion when the 13-member Governing Council of the Twenty20 tournament meets in Mumbai on Monday.
Suspended IPL Commissioner Lalit Modi on Tuesday received four documentary proofs of his alleged wrongdoings from the BCCI, which said it could not offer other evidences since those were of verbal nature.
As the IPL controversy has shown, he shuns the limelight but still makes his presence felt.
Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray on Wednesday asked the BCCI as to why cricketers like Sunil Gavaskar, Ravi Shastri or Ajit Wadekar were not considered to replace ousted IPL commissioner Lalit Modi.
Lalit Modi is not solely responsible for the mess that the IPL finds itself in and the Governing Council should also be held responsible for the financial scandal that has rocked the event, former chief selector Dilip Vengsarkar said on Tuesday.
BCCI may have suspended Lalit Modi as IPL Commissioner, but the suave former chief of Twenty20 extravaganza can still be seen smiling on the website of Indian Premier League.
Stung by allegations of irregularities in their initial bid, Rajasthan Royals on Tuesday insisted that the consortium neither flouted any norms nor hid any information from the BCCI about its shareholding pattern.
The crucial IPL Governing Council meeting began in Mumbai on Monday, barely hours after the BCCI suspended Lalit Modi as the chairman and commissioner of the high-profile Twenty20 event.
IPL Commissioner Lalit Modi on Sunday circulated the agenda for Monday's Governing Council meeting, asking the members to give their complaints against him in writing and with supporting documents.
Knives are out for Lalit Modi and the IPL Governing Council is set to sack him as chairman in a potentially volatile meeting on Monday after being rattled by Indian cricket's biggest financial scandal in recent memory.
With knives out against Lalit Modi, a host of owners of Indian Premier League franchises, including Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan, on Saturday came out in support of the beleaguered Twenty20 league commissioner.
Amid increasing attack on Lalit Modi, a member of the Indian Premier League Governing Council on Friday gave enough hints to its commissioner that he should quit. Shukla, who briefed Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee on the ongoing IPL controversy earlier in the day, asserted that the Governing Council will meet on April 26 as scheduled.
Accusing Indian Premier League Commissioner Lalit Modi of having acted as an "extra-constitutional power" during Vasundhara Raje's rule, Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot has claimed he used to pressurise officers for favours due to his proximity to the Bharatiya Janata Party leader.
Former India captain Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi feels the Indian Premier League's governing council must accept responsibility for the ongoing controversy surrounding the Twenty20 league. He is also of the view that if Lalit Modi stays away from the April 26 governing council meeting, he will be ousted as IPL commissioner.
The BCCI on Thursday rejected embattled Lalit Modi's contention that the April 26 IPL Governing Council meeting was illegal and made it clear that it would go ahead with the meeting as per schedule.
Rediff.com takes a look at some recent high-profile resignations by politicians who went blue in the face proclaiming their innocence.
Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray demanded a ban on the controversial Indian Premier League (IPL) "to save cricket".
Under-fire IPL commissioner Lalit Modi parried questions about his impending resignation, saying the matter will be discussed and a unanimous decision taken at the upcoming Governing Council meeting on April 26.
Rajasthan Royals chairman Manoj Badale on Tuesday said that there was no hidden stake in the Jaipur-based franchise in which IPL Commissioner Lalit Modi's brother-in-law has significant share of the ownership.
Beleaguered Lalit Modi on Monday found support from Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) owner Vijay Mallya, who credited the IPL commissioner for the cash-awash Twenty20 league's mind-boggling success. Throwing his weight behind Modi, Mallya said IPL owes its success to Modi and also wondered at the hue and cry raised over trans-border transaction by some of the IPL franchisees.
After securing the resignation of Union Minister Shashi Tharoor, Government on Monday said the entire Indian Premier League (IPL) will be under scrutiny including its funding and vowed not to spare any 'wrong-doer', as its top boss Lalit Modi came under the scanner of Income Tax authorities.
The IT department which visited the offices of IPL Commissioner Lalit Modi last week had 'cloned' voluminous data on bids and financial details of various franchises from his office computers into its 'portable forensic labs' which the tax sleuths carried along.
The Board of Cricket Control in India (BCCI) has rescheduled its Working Committee meeting from April 24 to May 2.
Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, in response to Opposition demands earlier in the day, made a statement in the House assuring members that "appropriate action as per law" would be taken if any wrongdoing was found in the manner the IPL was funded.
Indian Premier League's embattled Chairman Lalit Modi on Monday refuted allegations of betting and money laundering in the event, saying the charges were "nonsense" and aimed at discrediting the Twenty20 tournament.
The Cricket Board (BCCI) has rescheduled its working Committee meeting from April 24 to May 2, where allegations against Lalit Modi and all other issues related to the Kochi franchise bid would come up for discussion.
Satyajit Gaikwad, who has been eased out as spokeperson of the Kochi IPL team, speaks of the behind the scenes activity before and after the Kochi team won the IPL bid in an exclusive interview.
IPL Commissioner Lalit Modi's powers are set to be curtailed considerably as the move to clip his wings gained momentum at an informal BCCI meeting in Dharamshala where the Board's top brass discussed the Kochi franchise ownership row.
Making it amply clear that IPL chairman Lalit Modi will have to face some tough questions at the upcoming BCCI Working Committee meeting, JKCA president Farooq Abdullah on Saturday said there are some "issues" that need to be sorted out.
With the furore over Kochi franchise's ownership showing no signs of settling down, the IPL's Governing Council members meet here "informally" for the first time after the event's Commissioner Lalit Modi sparked the row on Twitter.
BCCI's media and finance committee chairman and Congress M P Rajiv Shukla on Friday defended junior foreign minister Shashi Tharoor on the Indian Premier League's Kochi ownership row, saying that there was 'no reason to disbelieve him'.
Sharad Pawar came out in support of IPL Commissioner Lalit Modi, saying there was nothing wrong in making public names of the stakeholders of the Kochi franchise.
