JOIN USIMG, which conducted the first three seasons of the highly successful Indian Premier League, sent its senior vice-president Andrew Wildblood and two other representatives to meet the top officials of the BCCI, including president Shashank Manohar.
Wildblood and his colleagues Paul Manning and John Loffhagen met Manohar, secretary N Srinivasan, vice-president Rajiv Shukla, interim IPL chairman Chirayu Amin and vice-chairman Niranjan Shah, among others, for two hours.
“We had a friendly and constructive meeting with the BCCI. We are hoping to have good relations with the BCCI,” Wildblood told waiting reporters before leaving along with his colleagues.
The meeting was convened by the BCCI to get detailed information on all matters relating to the IPL, including the awarding of the global broadcast rights to Multi Screen Media-World Sports Group, since its inception, according to sources.
Significantly, it was held less than 48 hours after Modi responded to the BCCI’s show cause notice on allegations of financial irregularities related to the Twenty20 league with a voluminous reply running into over 12,000 pages.
The IMG officials were to apprise the BCCI top guns everything related to the IPL, including the modalities followed for franchise bids, media rights and player auctions, since 2008.