Vijay Mallya, the owner of Royal Challengers Bangalore Indian Premiere League (IPL) team, today threw his weight behind the beleaguered Lalit Modi and said the IPL Commissioner should be given a chance to defend himself in the wake of the raging controversy.
“Lalit Modi is a friend of mine and I met him at the awards function last night. But we did not discuss the current controversy. I think Modi must be given some opportunity at some point of time to explain himself,” Mallya said after meeting former Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) president Sharad Pawar.
“This whole controversy has become an unnecessary toofan. Yes, there may be some questions about the way in which IPL runs. Clearly, some governing council members may not be happy. Let all that be properly investigated. But to rubbish IPL as a league then start casting aspersions on owners, alleging black money involvement, alleging funds from tax havens — I think this is stretching things way too far,” he added.
The liquor baron also rubbished the match-fixing allegations and said the government is welcome to hold an inquiry. “In case of foreign direct investment in our country, money comes from Mauritius or Switzerland, nobody questions it. How can it become a big issue when it comes to IPL investigations? The Finance Ministry has promised a full inquiry into all this, let the inquiry be conducted,” he said.