Modi unveils plans to challenge the ICC with alternate cricket body.
By Dileep Thekkethil
Follow @ambazaarmag
BENGALURU: Lalit Modi, the man who is the focus of the current controversial Parliament logjam in India, has claimed that he wants to uproot the International Cricket Council (ICC) and create a new cricketing system affiliated with the Olympic movement.
The former IPL boss, Modi, is wanted by Indian authorities on charges of money laundering linked with giving broadcast right of IPL.
Modi said today to an Australian media outlet about a master plan to overturn the official cricketing establishment, with an alternate one.
He told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation in an interview: “We’re talking about another cricketing system. There is a blueprint out there, it’s got my rubber stamp on it. I have been involved in it. I say it for the first time; I’ve been involved in putting that (blue) print together.”
Modi had earlier said that he was involved in the discussions to setting up a new cricket governing body but walked away from the project.
“The plan that I have put together is a very detailed plan, it’s not a plan that’s come off the cuff, it’s been taking years and years and years in the making,” he said.
Modi has been living a life of exile since 2010 in London after he was charged by the authorities in India with tax and financial crime. The authorities had received incriminating evidence against Modi during a series of raids conducted in his residence and office. Modi has been highly sceptical about the function of the ICC, its governance and financial sources.
He was highly critical of the powerhouse in ICC which he said was in the hands of India, England and Australia. He also believed that he could bring in a change in this order and find an alternate to the system.
“We could take on the existing establishment, no problem,” he said. “It requires a few billion dollars, I don’t think it would be a problem to get that… into action.”
Modi was ousted from the job as the IPL chairman in 2010 and in 2013 he got a life ban from any role in cricket administration under the Board of Control for Cricket in India.
India’s economic intelligence agency, the Enforcement Directorate, which is investigating the money laundering case against Modi had reached out to a Mumbai court which in turn produced a warrant against him last week.
According to the master plan of Modi, the alternate cricketing body affiliated with the Olympic movement had matches clashing with the calendar set up by the ICC. Interestingly Modi took down the 50 over-one-day internationals from his list as he believed the charm of 50 over game was over with the entry of T20.
“The plan conceives only Test cricket and T20; it doesn’t take into account one-day at all,” he told the broadcaster.
“I think that is completely redundant in today’s day and age. I think it should just be T20 and Test matches that should be played. I have been proposing that. The ICC will never agree to that; never means never,” he said. “That means they would have to do away with the ICC. It is a plan that one day if I ever implement it, will rewrite history in the sport.”
Part of the Modi’s plan was giving T20 a push as an Olympics sport.