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IPL Corruption and Match-Fixing Investigations

Cevno

Cevno

Hall of Fame Member
Modi offered us 50 million dollars to sell team: Kochi owners

The owners of the Kochi Indian Premier League (IPL) Team have exchanged a new round of accusations with IPL Commissioner Lalit Modi.

Now, the CEO of the Kochi franchise, Shailendar Gaekwad, claims that Modi offered them 50 million dollars to sell the team. A sign, says Gaekawad, that Modi desperately wanted a new IPL franchise in another part of the country instead of Kochi.

Attacking Modi for repeating on Wednesday that it's not clear exactly who owns the team, the owners retorted, "How can Modi say 'We don't know who the owners are'." (Read: Tharoor received death threat SMS about IPL team, says aide)

The consortium that won the bid for the Kochi team for 1530 crores is led by Rendezvous Sports Group and claims that its members submitted all required documents to the IPL, "including our PAN cards."

Gaekwad, said that at a meeting with Modi, "We were asked a lot of personal questions about some of our owners which we could not readily answer. He asked questions about when did you meet Sunanda (Pushkar) and other such irrelevant things....We said that whatever questions were unanswered we will mail all the details as soon as possible. We felt that most of the questions were planted. Before we could give all the answers he went on Twitter and said at the press conference that we did not have knowledge about all the owners." (Read: I am not a proxy for Tharoor: Sunanda Pushkar) (Read: Who is Sunanda Pushkar?)

Modi on Monday, in a series of tweets, alleged that the details of exactly who owns the team are unclear; he also said that Sunanda Pushkar, a friend of the Minister of State for External Affairs, Shashi Tharoor, has been gifted equity worth 70 crores. (Read: Lalit Modi, Kochi IPL owners trade new charges)

The owners do not deny this. They describe Pushkar's share as "sweat equity" saying it's in lieu of a salary for her Marketing experience.

The BJP, which has demanded that Tharoor be sacked for inappropriate links to the owners, says that Pushkar has no earlier link to either Kerala or cricket. It alleges that Pushkar is a front for Tharoor, who is being rewarded for his successful lobbying for an IPL team for his home state. (Read: Tharoor - Modi row: BJP says sack Minister, Congress distances itself)

The Kochi team owners have formally complained to the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) that Modi has violated confidentiality agreements. In turn, the BCCI has reprimanded Modi and summoned a special meeting to discuss the controversy.

Tharoor has clarified publicly that he is an advisor and a mentor to the team-owners and that he does not intend to financially benefit from the deal he allegedly helped strike.

At a press conference on Wednesday, Modi asserted that "It is my job as Chairman of IPL to seek details and authenticate the shareholding of every franchise... how would otherwise I know where the money is coming from." (Watch: Lalit Modi on Tharoor: I have nothing to hide)

He added, "In regard to all other eight franchises, we are aware of who they are ....everybody knows who they are . They attend our conferences, meetings ... In regard to Kochi, we had some question marks about who they are. In fact, the people who presented the bid document themselves did not know who they were ...that's why the issue has come up."

Stressing that he would address the issue after the current season of the IPL concludes, he said, "This is a small issue for us ...it is an issue nonetheless and we will deal with it."

Tharoor has said that Modi is targeting Kochi because the IPL commissioner wanted the franchise bid to be won by "a different team". The reference is to Modi's alleged

In response, Modi said, "I have nothing to hide."


Modi offered us 50 million dollars to sell team: Kochi owners
 
Cevno

Cevno

Hall of Fame Member
Modi told Tharoor’s office to deny visa to this model

They may be trading insults and allegations since last Sunday but Minister of State for External Affairs Shashi Tharoor’s office and IPL Commissioner Lalit Modi were quite “friendly” until at least last January.

So much so that the IPL czar is learnt to have asked Tharoor’s office to deny a visa to South African model Gabriella Demetriades, one of the contestants for Miss IPL Bollywood during IPL 2.

E-mails between Modi and the Minister’s office in January show that the model’s visa was due to expire in February 2010 and Modi wanted Tharoor’s office to ensure that her request for the visa’s renewal be turned down.

The Ministry didn’t oblige — and Demetriades did get a visa.

When asked why he wanted her visa blocked, Modi declined to comment.

Speaking to The Indian Express from Mumbai tonight, before she left for South Africa, Demetriades, 23, said that she had arrived in India in October last year on a six-month visa.

“I went back in December to renew my visa which was to expire in February. While in South Africa, I lost my passport. I managed to get a temporary passport and, subsequently, a visa from the Indian consulate in Durban in January and then traveled to India,” she said. “I am not associated with IPL 3 and was here only to do modeling assignments and some commercials.”

Asked whether Modi played any role in her visa request, she replied in the negative. Asked about her association with Modi, she said: “He is a friend, we met during last year’s IPL in South Africa.”

The e-mails reveal that Modi kept Tharoor’s office informed about Demetriades losing her passport and applying for a new one. Demetriades, in turn, kept Modi informed about the loss of her passport and her visa application.


http://www.indianexpress.com/news/modi-told-tharoors-office-to-deny-visa-to-this-model/606183/2
 
Sir Alex

Sir Alex

Banned
The second one is undebateable without any specifics.

Regarding the first one, there was this interview in NDTV where tharoor clarified his position.

1. He indeed admitted he and the woman are 'close'. Their relation extends to before all this bidding etc started.

2. What exactly has the lady 'done' to 'merit' the allotment? The amount is in millions of dollars, hardly comparable to that an top executive gets in India, and she hasn't even started her work! (Unless her work was to get the paperwork done for the bidding).

3. This does not give any other impression than the lady being a front for Tharoor. He is the one who'll be the go-to-guy for all issues relating to governmental issues in Kerala and india as he is both an MP and a minister and an influential one at that.

4. Now, is what Tharoor did wrong? Not from silly 'holier than thou' perspective which now all his political opponents both outside and inside his party are taking, but from a realistic perspective? I don't think so. There is no thing as a free lunch. And if Tharoor is using his influence to get things done without doing any illegal stuff, it's perfectly reasonable that he gets rewarded for that. He is bringing in overseas investment for his country, if not his constituency in the process which is priceless, as it is creation of capital. Obviously he cannot personally accept the payment as under some Law, ministers are forbidden to get any other remuneration, even if perfectly legal, when they are taking a salary from the state.

Verdict: the mud slinging will continue for a few days. Tharoor's political future will depend on what Sonia gandhi will decide, as she has been his primary supporter even when majority of the party leaders from kerala were against him during his nomination.
 
Cevno

Cevno

Hall of Fame Member
I have this on a very good authority from a media source that this controversy has started because Lalit Modi and the BJP lobby in the BCCI wanted a team from ahmedabad and Lalit Modi had promised this to Narendra modi.But thanks to Tharoor the team went to Kochi and now this has become a almost proxy war in the BCCI .

Lalit Modi desperately wants to save his position in tHE BCCI by getting the support of Jaitley(President,DDCA) and Narendra modi(President,Gujarat cricket association) with Srinivasan and Tamil nadu cricket association after his head,but since his plans for the ahmedabad team did not come to fruition with the ADANI group he is trying to use strong arm tactics to take the kochi franchise to ahmedabad or even Kanpur.

Rajasthan also played so many matches in ahmedabad due to the two Modi's and with Lalit losing RCA presidency to congress leader CB Joshi and His close associate Vasundhra Raje scindia losing elections ,there is a chance that if he does not manage a new franchise from ahmedabad then the Royals might shift there. Already they are facing difficulties with authorities in Rajasthan as OPPOSED tO THE EASE they FACED in the first year.
What is also interesting that Lalit Modi's Brother-in-law Suresh chelaram ,is a majority stakeholder in the rajasthan franchise.
 
Sir Alex

Sir Alex

Banned
Also it is quite evident that Modi is taking the piss here as the Ahmedabad based Adani group could not win the bid because the kerala consortium somehow flukely outbid them.

Indeed pathetic stuff from Modi, he has now invited the wrath of other teamowners as well because he has disclosed details of this consortium, and he might be pressurised to disclose others' as well.
 
Sir Alex

Sir Alex

Banned
Cevno said:
I have this on a very good authority from a media source that this controversy has started because Lalit Modi and the BJP lobby in the BCCI wanted a team from ahmedabad and Lalit Modi had promised this to Narendra modi.But thanks to Tharoor the team went to Kochi and now this has become a almost proxy war in the BCCI .

Lalit Modi desperately wants to save his position in tHE BCCI by getting the support of Jaitley(President,DDCA) and Narendra modi(President,Gujarat cricket association) with Srinivasan and Tamil nadu cricket association after his head,but since his plans for the ahmedabad team did not come to fruition with the ADANI group he is trying to use strong arm tactics to take the kochi franchise to ahmedabad or even Kanpur.

Rajasthan also played so many matches in ahmedabad due to the two Modi's and with Lalit losing RCA presidency to congress leader CB Joshi and His close associate Vasundhra Raje scindia losing elections ,there is a chance that if he does not manage a new franchise from ahmedabad then the Royals might shift there. Already they are facing difficulties with authorities in Rajasthan as OPPOSED tO THE EASE they FACED in the first year.
What is also interesting that Lalit Modi's Brother-in-law Suresh chelaram ,is a majority stakeholder in the rajasthan franchise.
Click to expand...
Interesting. Always felt modi belonged to the right faction any way, particularly after IPL was denied security in india last year under the pretext of elections.

Quite stupid of him to have gone on a public stage with this allegation. Now if the specifics of other teams had to be disclosed, he'd be red faced.

The spin doctors in the congress high command, I hope aren't idiots not to see through this, and make Tharoor a scapegoat in this issue.
 
Cevno

Cevno

Hall of Fame Member
Of intrigue and arm-twisting in high places
Aditi Phadnis / New Delhi April 14, 2010, 0:03 IST

Told to take money and withdraw, the successful but frightened Kochi franchise winners seek Sonia’s protection.

Harassed and bullied, the Kochi franchisees of cricket’s Indian Premier League have sought the protection of Congress president Sonia Gandhi from two Union cabinet ministers, who allegedly wanted them out of IPL.

At least two of the seven investors of Rendezvous Sports World (RSW), that won the franchise for Kochi, were last week summoned to the Mumbai residence of a Union cabinet minister and told to back off from bidding for Kochi or else. “We have many ways to take care of the likes of you,” the two now-scared investors were told at the end of a conversation with the minister that began at 10 pm and went on till 4 am. They were told to go to Delhi to meet another minister from the same party, who apologised for his colleague’s conduct but repeated: “Get out of IPL. Sell the team.”


The two investors are not helpless individuals. One of them runs an industry. Another owns a broking firm and deals in precious gems. They are millionaires. But, they say, when they decided to invest in cricket, they did not think they were putting their lives in their hands.

The story begins a year ago, when a group of seven high net worth individuals decided that in the next one year, IPL would be ready to launch two new teams and this could be a good investment opportunity.

The group of seven was led by a banker. As Kochi was one of the venues, the group decided it would be helpful if an elected representative from Kerala were to support the venture. They approached Shashi Tharoor, who recognised the political spin-off and supported the holding of his companion, Sunanda Pushkar. Pushkar has five per cent holding in the team, not 20 per cent as widely reported, a member of the consortium said.

RSW was a group of sport lovers which had been doing some charity sports events, but was not well known. The stakes for bidding were high – the company was required to have a net worth of $1 billion (Rs 4,500 crore).The group decided it needed some financial ballast and managed to rope in J P Gaur of the Gaur group. “We thought that if we have to compete with groups like Hero Honda and the Jaypee group, we needed someone with deep pockets and an appetite for risk,” said one of the RSW members.

At that point, it was clear that there were at least two other venues for which bidding was on aggressively — Ahmedabad, sought by the Adani group and Pune, sought by Videocon and Sahara. Gaur decided he wanted to compete independently and walked out. The financial ballast was gone.

Then, RSW realised they were being edged out of the game. They pulled strings in the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) and got the threshold lowered to 10 per cent of the original figure: Rs 46 crore. The first lot of bids was cancelled and rebidding was scheduled in Chennai two weeks later.

It was a Sunday morning. A cricket match was on in Chennai. Five companies were in the fray: Adani, Videocon, RSW, Cyrus Poonawalla with builder Ajay Shirke, and the Sahara group.

RSW got the first inkling that something was not quite kosher when they got a message that their bid should be below $300 million. They consulted among themselves and kept the bid at $333 million (Rs 1,533 crore). Sahara bid $370 million (Rs 1,702 crore). Videocon’s bid was $320 million, Adani bid $315 million. Theirs was the closest and they got the franchise.

The members wanted to pop the cork. Too early, cautioned their leader. Get the letter of franchise first. They met IPL Commissioner Lalit Modi in Delhi. The daughter of one of the ministers was present in the room. This was when suggestions were made that they should take $50 million and walk away.

The group was first amused, then flummoxed. “Suppose we walk,” asked one, “who is going to give us $50 million?”

An investment banker, was the laconic reply.

“Come on,” said the leader. “I am an investment banker. I know no one will pay this order of money.”

“A client of an investment banker,” they were told.

The group conferred among themselves and said prestige was involved. “We won’t go,” they said.

That was not the end. The letter of franchise was delayed on one or other pretext: Contingent liability, declaration of shareholding pattern, finally, a 10 per cent bank guarantee. The message at the end always was: “Why get into this ? Sell the team.”

The last straw was the meeting at the minister’s bungalow.

The group has finally decided that if political power is what will get them justice, they, too, will knock at the door of politicians. Meanwhile, although the consortium is not breaking up, the strain is telling on it. Shashi Tharoor has confided in friends that he may have to put off wedding plans. Sunanda Pushkar is close to a breakdown. The two Gujarati investors have hired additional personal protection for themselves and their families.

“The game was to get us out and give the franchise to the next bidder,” said a member of the consortium.

This is when a franchisee has to look at 40 to 50 per cent losses in the first two years. “We are looking at a net loss of Rs 100 crore at least, for the first two years,” one of them said.

Neutral observers say the episode is a clash between two groups of “very clever people”. “The conflict of interest in Lalit Modi’s case is clear: His son-in-law has been given web advertising rights and his brother-in-law has a team. And, in Shashi Tharoor’s case, the woman whom he is going to marry has been given free equity worth Rs 75 crore today but it could be worth Rs 500 crore a few years from now. And, when you look at it, the minister of state in charge of the Middle East also has 100 per cent of his business in the Middle East: does that sound like propriety?” asked a member of the BCCI governing council.

Of intrigue and arm-twisting in high places
 
Cevno

Cevno

Hall of Fame Member
Kerala Cricket Association backs Tharoor

As expected, the Kerala Cricket Association backed Shashi Tharoor in his public spat with Lalit Modi over the Kochi franchise, with KCA president TC Mathew saying if it was not for the minister, the state would not have dreamt of owning an IPL team.

Tharoor found himself in a controversy after IPL Commissioner Modi publicly disclosed the names of some of the owners of a consortium that recently bought the Kochi franchise for a whopping USD 333.33 million.

Rendezvous Sports World private limited, the company that led the consortium, received 25 per cent free equity. But out of this free equity, 19 per cent is said to have gone to Sunanda Pushkar, a woman closely linked to Tharoor who is reportedly planning to marry her after divorcing his second wife, a Canadian.

But Mathew said the KCA was strongly behind Tharoor in his hour of crisis.

"He (Tharoor) is the man who certainly brought IPL to the state. He is certainly the mentor. He only co-ordinated the franchise. So we have to stand with him," Mathew told NDTV.

"We have to support him because Kerala actually cannot dream of such an IPL team," he said.

A state player said that with Kerala owning an IPL team, many homegrown cricketers will now get a life-time opportunity to rub shoulders with the bigwigs of international cricket.

"It (IPL) is as good as playing international cricket because we will be playing alongside the likes of (Sachin) Tendulkar, Adam Gilchrist, Herschelle Gibbs etc. who all have made names for themselves," the player said.

Kerala Cricket Association backs Tharoor


What is also very interesting is that the Kerala cricket association has always been a part of the Dalmiya faction of the board and S.k nair was the board secretary in Dalmiya days.
 
Teja.

Teja.

Global Moderator
social said:
Money + minimal regulation + 3rd world = trouble
Click to expand...
Maybe it is due to my constant participation in MUNs, but I find the term '3rd world country' extremely derogatory, Please give some respect to the country and refrain from using it while referring to India or any country for that matter.
 
Athlai

Athlai

Not Terrible
I don't think Modi should be running this tbh. Sure he organized the whole thing but personally I reckon the wisest think to do would be to move this to safer hands now.
 
G.I.Joe

G.I.Joe

International Coach
The model would have been successful whether Modi existed or not. The ICL template didn't require a genius to come up with.
 
Cevno

Cevno

Hall of Fame Member
To be honest this model is completely different ot the ICL.
And Modi first presented this to the BCCI for a 50 over league in 1996 and then to the all India football federation,but to no avail as he was not a part of either at the time.

But having created this monster and doing a excellent Job in the process ,I think Modi should now leave as he is now acting as a power obsessed lunatic.
 
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Cevno

Cevno

Hall of Fame Member
Sharad Pawar and Praful Patel are the two alleged NCP ministers who allegedly threatened the Franchisee officials to shift to ahmedabad ,as they allegedly had a stake in it.

Though they have been not named so far,have to say it is surprising that there is no controversy directed at them ,but only tharoor.
 
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