With seven IPL franchises and even the former BCCI president Sharad Pawar throwing their weight behind Modi, the IPL governing council meeting in Mumbai on Wednesday will in all probability repose its faith in IMG.
A ‘disturbed’ Pawar has expressed his disappointment in no uncertain terms in a letter addressed to the BCCI president, Shashank Manohar, a copy of which is with TOI. ‘‘When I was the board president, we signed a 10-year agreement with IMG to conceptualise, formulate and implement a new league along with Lalit Modi and the same was approved at all appropriate levels,’’ he states.
‘‘IMG has been instrumental in day-to-day operations of the league and we should come to a suitable arrangement (with IMG). In IPL, there are many stakeholders and anything we do that may jeopardize their investments will show BCCI in a bad light. With the overwhelming success of the IPL it is our duty to protect not only BCCI but also all its stakeholders,’’ he said.
Insiders see it as a snub to Srinivasan, the BCCI secretary, whose missive to IMG seeking a termination of their contract with BCCI has snowballed into a big controversy. ‘‘Pawar is mostly non-interfering. It’s between (Shashank) Manohar - the BCCI president - and Srinivasan that most decisions in the board are taken. But now that he has personally intervened, it is being seen as a move that could perhaps clip Srinivasan’s wings,’’ says an official familiar with the developments.
Murmurs of the growing influence of South Zone in the BCCI after Srinivasan became the secretary are also doing the rounds. ‘‘The chairman of selectors, the latest selections, umpires, trainers, even baggage men. They’re all from south. The BCCI might as well be for the South Zone,’’ lament certain officials. For the record, Srinivasan’s position as secretary in the BCCI is a direct conflict of interest with him also owning a team franchise in the IPL, a fact that has time and again been swept aside by BCCI officials, including Modi.
There are those who detest Modi too. Some fear that he has managed to remain the sole centre of power in India’s Twenty20 bull-run and there are those who say that Modi is arrogant.
