The Indian Premier League Chairman and Commissioner Lalit Modi is likely to be suspended ahead of the cricket body’s crucial governing council meeting tomorrow, which Modi has said he would attend, and chair.
The constitution of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), of which IPL is a unit, allows its president to suspend any official working for it.
Modi, sources said, has challenged the authority of BCCI by saying he would chair tomorrow’s governing council meeting, which has been called by BCCI.
The one-point agenda circulated for the meeting is to discuss charges against Modi as well as against any of the 13 other members of the governing council and BCCI.
“Members of the governing council have been requested to give all such complaints in writing with the requisite supporting documents at the meeting on the morning of April 26, 2010 to the Chairman and Commissioner, so they can be replied in full,” a statement from IPL said.
In a tweet late afternoon today, Modi said, “I will attend and chair the meeting of the GC (governing council) as chairman and commissioner. I have issued the agenda to the GC.”
This follows Modi’s assertion yesterday that he was ready for a showdown in the council meeting, that he would not resign and would only have to be removed.
However, the top brass of BCCI who were closeted in meetings to discuss their strategy for the meet tomorrow said they were not worried about Modi’s new move.
“There is unanimity amongst the governing council that we will remove him. We will ask him to step down, if he does not we will have to pass a resolution to remove him,” a senior governing council member said.
IPL has called a press conference at 12 noon tomorrow after the council meeting.
The member also denied that there had been a discussion on replacing Modi with Ravi Shastri as interim commissioner of IPL. “We might have an interim arrangement but Shastri’s name has not been discussed at all. The plan is to get a professional CEO to run the show and that is what we will do later on.”
Another BCCI member added: “Surely Modi will fight and might rake up the issue of N Srinivasan, the BCCI secretary owning a franchisee, which he says is against the rules. But we are not worried about it or his agenda.”
BCCI Chief Administrative Officer Ratnakar Shetty, however, declined to give details of the meeting. “It was an internal meeting which we convened today. It would not be appropriate to talk about it at present”, he said.
Modi had earlier questioned the legality of Srinivasan convening the IPL governing council meet and had threatened to go to court to stop the meeting. He, however, did a volte face later saying that he would not go to court. Instead, he appealed to the council that he should be given five more days to get details needed to defend the allegations made against him, a request which has been denied. Former BCCI president Sharad Pawar had supported his request.
Modi has been at the centre of the IPL storm with allegations of financial irregularities, for running the organization like his own fiefdom without consulting other members and also helping his close associates and relatives with deals related to IPL. His links with some teams indirectly through his relatives like that with Rajasthan Royals (through his brother-in-law) too have come into question. Sources in BCCI said Modi would be quizzed on various issues in the meeting tomorrow - on why he made the shareholding structure of the new Kochi franchisee Rendezvous Sports public when it was clear in the franchisee agreement that these details could only be made public if both the sides agree or when asked by government agencies.
He would also be quizzed on the way he tried to push through the bidding process for the two new IPL teams without consulting the governing council on the terms and conditions, which some allege were made to let only a few companies to come in.
