Pawar adds new twist to row

The owners of the Kochi IPL team have been alleging that the IPL commissioner Lalit Modi was pressuring them to shift the team to Ahmedabad, perhaps under the influence of the Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi and the Adani business group.

According to Pawar, Kochi team’s four majority stake holders met him soon after the IPL auction. “I told them that I would not get involved with this issue. I said if you want my advice you should stay in Kochi,” he said.The Rendezvous spokesman Satyajit Gaikwad and the firm CEO Shailendra Gaikwad have alleged that Lalit Modi had offered them a bribe of $50 million to withdraw from the race. Modi has already said he would initiate legal action against Gaikwads for defamation.