JOIN USBCCI big wigs plot ouster of Modi from IPL hot seat
Modi, who has successfully conducted two editions of the Indian Premier League and filled the BCCI coffers with his marketing acumen, has been having problems with some of the key BCCI functionaries for some time now.
“There is a move within the BCCI to remove Modi as IPL Chairman and Commissioner. The argument is that the IPL is a BCCI event and logically the BCCI president should head it as an ex-officio member.
“It does not mean that Modi will have no role at all in the running of the IPL but it is only that he should not be heading the show,” a BCCI source disclosed.
Although no BCCI official was willing to go on record on this development, it is learnt that BCCI secretary N Srinivasan, known to be at loggerheads with Modi, is in the forefront of this campaign.
The move has not yet come up for formal discussion in Working Committee meetings but is being pursued privately to garner support.
“These things are not discussed in Working Committee meetings where only items listed in the agenda are taken up for deliberation.
“But yes, behind the scene, it is discussed,” the source said. Modi, who was given virtually a free hand to run IPL, his brainchild event, during Sharad Pawar’s tenure as the BCCI president, has not enjoyed the same status after Shashank Manohar took over.
Modi pooh-poohs reports
Meanwhile, Modi pooh-poohed reports that he is being eased out of the cricket’s biggest money-spinner.
Talking from Germany, Modi said there was no truth in “these planted stories” as he was appointed by the cricket board’s general body for five years to run the IPL.
“Also, there’s no truth in the report that the post of IPL commissioner is being abolished,” he insisted.