ICC confirms receiving mail from Modi

The International Cricket Council on Sunday confirmed receiving an e-mail -- which had detailed the proximity between two prominent Indian cricketers, a leading West Indian all-rounder and a Mumbai realtor, an alleged bookie -- from the ousted Indian cricket administrator Lalit Modi in June 2013.

On Saturday the confidential letter, addressed to ICC CEO Dave Richardson, was made public through a tweet (twitter handle @shyamswami158), causing a flutter. The letter written by Modi claimed that the two current Indian cricketers and a West Indian player, all playing for the same franchise in the Indian Premier League, were bribed by a Mumbai-based real estate tycoon and urged the ICC to probe the matter. Modi in his email had named all three cricketers and the realtor.

To a query from Deccan Herald, the ICC confirmed having received the letter from Modi.
“The ICC confirms that Mr Modi’s confidential e-mail, which was received in June 2013, and which has recently been published on Twitter, was provided to the ACSU (Anti-Corruption and Security Unit) at the time. The ACSU handled that information in accordance with its standard operating procedures, which included sharing it with the BCCI’s anti-corruption unit,” an ICC spokesman said.

What is though intriguing is that the tweet is the only one sent out by the user Shyam Swami (@shyamswami158). The account was found deleted on Sunday. Within minutes of the tweet being sent out, Modi had responded: “Ask @Icc @Bcci @Ipl why ask me. This is highly confidential. You should not be tweeting this.”

“This is shocking,” ShyamSwami had tweeted, tagging Modi’s account.