Lalit Modi.
Credit: Credit: Instagram/ @lalitkmodi
The country is buzzing with excitement and anticipation after the conclusion of the mega auction of Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025 on November 25. All 10 franchises have assembled their respective squads for the upcoming edition of IPL, slated to begin on March 14, 2025, and continue till May 25, 2025.
With cricket fever running high across the nation, Lalit Modi, the founder of IPL and former Vice President of the BCCI, is grabbing the headlines after a series of startling remarks and allegations. In a recent appearance on a show with YouTube podcaster Raj Shamani, Modi made serious accusations against the Chennai Super Kings (CSK) franchise and its co-owner N Srinivasan.
In the podcast, Lalit Modi claimed that the IPL administrations resorted to 'rigging' the auction bids during the second edition of the competition, in order to ensure former England all-rounder Andrew Flintoff gets bought by CSK. This was done as Srinivasan wanted Flintoff in his team, according to Modi.
"Pick out everything - auction rigging. I gave Flintoff to Srinivasan. Yes, we did it. No doubts about it; every team knew about it. Srinivasan wasn't going to let the IPL happen. He was a thorn in our Board. Yes, we told everybody not to pick (Andrew) Flintoff. Yes, that I did-because Srinivasan said 'I want Flintoff'," Modi said during the interview with Raj Shamani.
"When everybody started going on the bandwagon, he was also a member of the board. He was a big adversary of mine. I went up against him, and he did many things. He accused me of umpire fixing, and I accused him right back. He would change the umpire. At first, I didn't think much about it. But when I realized he was putting a Chennai umpire on a Chennai game, it became an issue for me. That's called indirect fixing. When I started exposing those things, he went totally against me", he added.
Notably, Lalit Modi also made other revelations related to the IPL during this podcast. He stated that Bollywood superstar and Kolkata Knight Riders co-owner Shah Rukh Khan was initially keen on buying stakes of Mumbai Indians (MI). However, since MI was bought by Mukesh Ambani, KKR was his eventual pick.