New Delhi, November 26: Denying any wrongdoing during his role as IPL commissioner, Lalit Modi has said he did not make money out of the cash-rich Twenty20 league and that BCCI was aware of all his actions.
The sacked BCCI administrator said he actually spent money from his own pocket to make the Indian Premier League (IPL) a huge success and never took any money from the national board for his job.
Modi also said he would return to India whenever he is convinced that he is safe in the country.
”When somebody turns around and says that they did not know about it, it’s absolutely a false story…I mean everybody concerned from the governing council to the BCCI members, were very much present in the room, and in fact everybody was just happy at that point in time because we got eight bids,” he told ‘You Tube’.
”In fact you had my Vice Chairman Niranjan Shah who was questioned immediately after the auction and said ‘Mr Modi’s relatives have bid’, he said ‘so what, there are no other bidders out there, and if he has bid he has put his own money in’, if it was not friends and family that are coming to bid and believe in the product they wouldn’t have had the IPL in the first place,” he said.
Modi is facing charges of financial irregularities and is facing probe by Enforcement Directorate, BCCI Disciplinary Committee and the Chennai Police.
The former IPL commissioner denied the allegations that he influenced the bid process as he wanted Adani Group and Videocon to win the franchisees for season-IV.
Modi further said he was sorry that his tweets led to Union Minister Shashi Tharoor’s sacking but did not regret tweeting.
He said he never aimed to hurt Tharoor and it just happened.
”Well that was not intended, it happened, it was not intended to embarrass anybody. It was the intention of that to get the truth out there, it wasn’t intended to ridicule, embarrass a minister or the government.
”I am sorry that it happened, but at the end of the day you have got to understand that the events leading to Kochi are still sub judice. I wouldn’t like to at this point in time actually get into the nitty gritties and the details of what actually happened,” he said.
Modi said the Indian cricket board made money with his idea.
”I can very clearly tell you that I have not pocketed any money from the IPL. You’ve got to keep in mind I created something out of nothing. The BCCI had benefited, will benefit in the next ten years in excess of 2 billion dollar which is never something that they have projected, to project that they were going to get, this is something of an initiative that I took on my own, as an honorary member… and I did not do it for myself, and the benefit 100 per cent accrued to the BCCI,” he added.
–UNI