Lalit Modi

Lalit Modi (born 29 November, 1963 Delhi, India) is an Indian cricket administrator and businessman. He is best known for his stint as the Chairman and Commissioner of the Indian Premier League and the Chairman of the Champions League from 2008 to 2010. He is also the Vice President of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) since 2005 and Vice President of the Punjab Cricket Association.

Career:

Modi is the President and Managing Director of Modi Enterprises, an industrial conglomerate created and run by his family.

Modi has been the Executive Director of Godfrey Phillips India since 1992, one of India's largest tobacco company. The company is jointly promoted by the Modi Enterprises and Philip Morris International. Modi started a 10-year joint venture with Walt Disney Pictures in 1993, called Modi Entertainment Networks (MEN), to broadcast some of Disney's content in India including Fashion TV

He later went into the real estate business in Rajasthan, with a company called Amer Heritage City Construction Pvt Ltd, his wife Minal, is a director

In the arena of cricket, Modi was part of the Rajasthan cricket association (RCA), is current vice- president of the BCCI, and chairman and commissioner of the IPL.

He was instrumental in launching the Indian Premier League (IPL), a league based around Twenty20 cricket, where each team is limited to batting for a maximum of 20 overs, a highly successful and lucrative venture. The IPL has grown into one of the world's biggest sports, worth over US$4 billion.

Awards:

In March 2008, he was listed among India's 30 most powerful people by the India Today magazine

Controversies:

In 2010, Modi oversaw the bidding process and creation of two new teams in the Indian Premier League. Pune and Kochi were declared the new franchises. A twitter entry by Modi declaring the stakeholders of the Kochi IPL Team allegedly breaching confidentiality agreements set in motion highly controversial set of events which led to the resignation of the then Indian Minister of State for External Affairs Dr. Shashi Tharoor.

The controversy entailed a controversial tweet by Modi where he revealed that he was asked by an ‘influential union minister’ to not get into details of Sunanda Pushkar who was given a sweat equity of approximately 45% of the total equity (estimated 70 crore). RSW protested against the breach of the confidentiality agreement by Modi and Tharoor and Pushkar denied all charges. Amidst the controversy that followed, Modi was suspended as Chairman and Commissioner of the IPL. A suspension notice and a 34-page letter stating 22 charges of impropriety were served via email, to Modi. Modi was accused of, among other things, accepting a multi-million dollar kickback while assigning the telecast rights for IPL matches, and attempting to rig the bids for the two new IPL teams that were auctioned the previous month. A confidential income tax department report into Modi has revealed that he holds a silent stake in 3 IPL teams - the Rajasthan Royals, Kolkata Knight Riders and Kings XI Punjab. Furthermore, there are controversies as to whether Modi was involved in match fixing and betting in IPL games. He is also under fire for helping his family and friends buy stakes in IPL teams.

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