Lalit Modi, a former commissioner of the Indian Premier League has revealed that the Board of Control for Cricket India (BCCI), had a role to play in the exclusion of Pakistani cricketers from the private short format cricketing league, Cricinfo.com reported on Tuesday.
The league saw the successful inclusion of Pakistani cricketers in its debut year in 2008. However, following the November 26, 2008 attacks, Pakistani players were almost exclusively shunned from subsequent edition. None of the teams bid for the Pakistani players up for auction in the 2009 tournament held in South Africa.
The BCCI had denied any wrong doing on its part, insisting that teams took individual decisions to not sign Pakistani players. No Pakistani player has featured in the tournament since then.
Modi, in an inteverview to CNN-IBN said that "armtwisting" by the BCCI had led to the shut out of the Pakistani cricketers.
"Arm-twisting happened by senior BCCI officials that nobody should pick them."
The BCCI has come under scrutiny after one of the biggest sponsors of cricket in India, Sahara, decided to pull its support to Indian cricket this week.
Modi also revealed that the auction of Andrew Flintoff in the 2009 edition too was rigged.
"Yes that is a fact. I made it clear that time. That onus was on me and as chairman I should have not allowed that to happen then," Modi told CNN-IBN.
COMMENTS (34)
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@Imran Mohammad: Thats what we wanted, neki kar dariya me daal :)
BCCI look what have you done with your cricket team by introducing this IPL thingy..your players need some top class cricket instead of this IPL..it has rusted them.Thats why they are facing innings defeats by teams..Shame on you indians.
@Imran Mohammad:
One should look at qhat IPL has done to Indian cricket. ?
answers as below
1)it won India the world cup. 2) made them millionaires in dollar terms 3) made all the boards and the ICC their slaves 4) they forgot to play test cricket. but you never know they might come back
considering the above i would go for IPL any day, wasnt a bad idea.
Pakistan won one test match series and suddenly it's fans gloat as if there is no tomorrow.
Pakistan has good cricketers but they are lowly paid so some of them indulge in match fixing to make money on the side even if it hurts their country's reputation. They can join IPL and solve their money issue but their govt and people should stop terror attacks. People here seem to forget that the pak cricketers were unoffocially banned from IPL after the Mumbai attacks carried out by Pakistan. The perpetuators of that attack is still walking free in Pakistan. You cannot expect to attack a country and then have normal relationship with that same country. Stop doing terrorism in the name of religion.
Sour grapes guys
@Salman: I agree with you.
I was kinda glad that Pakistani players couldn't play in the IPL. It was surely a blessing in disguse, look where the Pakistan team is today and the lows that the Indian team is facing, the results speak for themselves.
I am missing Indian trolls' comments here;p and then we are obsessed with India!
It was a blessing a disguise for Pakistan....just look where are the Indian players after burn outs in IPL....
@Fatah:
actually i want Pakistan to tour India and that too in the enxt few months. Why do I say that because on foem, talent and if non-cricketing reasons do not interfere with play Pakistan will easily take out India on their home soil.
We don't need IPL for Pakistani Cricket Team players.. IPL Ruins other international teams also..so much loss to Test Arena. Lots of WI and SRI players are fading away.
Let's see how BCCI and IPL officials deal with the latest waves of ModiLeaks.
@Tribune Reader: I agree with your comments - the world has never been at peace, and yet, all countries around the world get together for the Winter and Summer Olympics. Politics, religion & current events should be left out of sports. Anyways, the Men in Green are going strong, so they need to just keep going and play their best and be on the look out for other opportunities world wide as individuals (like Afridi did in Australia), and as a productive team members. CHEERS FOR MY DARLING BOOM BOOM!!!
India v Australia 0-4 Pakistan v England 3-0
That tells you everything you need to know about the value of the IPL
It's a blessing in disguise. Pakistan's rise and India's decline in test cricket (the real meaningful cricket) is no coincidence.
India is the PROBLEM in Cricket.
India is the home of the illegal gambling syndicates. Indians are the ones involved in making the bets.
Indian umpires, like Shavir Tarapore, are involved in spot fixing and match fixing.
Now it is known that BCCI executives are conspiring in market fixing (re players).
Even if Pakistani player is offered position in IPL - they should REFUSE.
No to IPL. No to India.
India must tour Pakistan. No Pakistan tour of India. No neutral venue. India must play 6 Test match series IN Pakistan.
Why do Pakistani players want to play in IPL anyway? They make more than enough money playing in England, Australia South Africa etc aside from the money they make playing for the national team plus endorsements. I believe Afridi's contract in Bangladesh's new league is $500,000. Isn't that more than what he was paid in his one year in the IPL? There would be nothing wrong with playing in the IPL but the way they were complaining about not being able to participate last year was pathetic.
Zaka Ashraf was right about them.
P.S BCCI did a great favor to us.
Zaka was right that Indian's afraid of Paki cricketers. BCCI is Blind Cricket Council India.
Aman ki Asha? ya right!!
I knew it all along that there was BCCI involvement in keeping the Pakistani cricketers out, if anything the ICC should have shown some courage and stood up to the BCCI for such targeted discrimination of players from one specific country. There should be no room for politics what so ever in sport and such targeted discrimination should not be tolerated. How would the international community feel let's say tomorrow Iran or North Korea were not permitted to participate in the 2012 London Olympics. Athletes and sports persons should not be discriminated due to political differences between countries. If anything I am pretty sure, there is some Indian government involvement also in the marginalisation of Pakistani Cricketers.
@Hunzai: you don't need RAW to do all the damage...it was a case of bad defence on part of PCB, bad tour management in which activities of players were never managed, and above all the money that spins due to Indian betting mafia of Mumbai and of course the clout Indian board has due to its huge money...so it was a collection of all these factors that Amer and Asif were entrapped...remember they were not caught in real life scenario....it was a sting...or dramatized act by newsoftheworld...the newspaper itself has been banned by UK govt due to sting / illegal operations.. nobody raised gfingers against team management, nobody asks to clamp doown the mumbai fixing mafia and nobody admits that BCCI with all the media and money can destroy anyone by concocting sting operations and getting them done by some others.......!
for me the issue is not if BCCI or IPL banning/blocking out Pakistani cricketers....the issue is, why the hell did Pakistani cricketers even go to India and become part of the IPL fiasco? had they had better confidence in themselves and their game, they would have rather chosen going to Britain for county cricket/club cricket
After Pakistan has won the test series against England in Abu Dhabi, now Pakistani Cricket Players will become the most wanted players and individuals or organisations will make the highest bid for Pakistani Cricket Players.
IPL is more of a casino than a cricket tournament - there is no glory in playing for a businessmen. #TestCricketForever
I am sure the fixing fiasco was plotted by the RAW. All was planned and bad luck for Pakistan was corrupt leadership who had no moral courage or motivation to fight or unearth the scam.
Thank you BCCI for keeping Pakistani players away from IPL( Indian Prejudiced League). It was a blessing in disguise. One should look at qhat IPL has done to Indian cricket.
I can only LAUGH OUT LOUD on this news. BCCI and specially Lalid Modi should be grown up and face the reality. PAKISTAN has THE BEST CRICKETERS and CRICKETING TEAM in the World NOW. #StayAway from us !
whatever!