Suspended IPL chief Modi replaced, Gavaskar also omitted

Indian cricket bosses announce that the suspended IPL chief has been replaced.

MUMBAI:

Indian cricket bosses replaced the suspended chief of the Indian Premier League (IPL), Lalit Modi, capping the demise of one of the game’s most high-profile and controversial figures.

Modi, the brash driving force behind the money-spinning IPL, was removed as the chairman of the tournament, as vice-president of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) and as head of the BCCI marketing committee.

“The present IPL governing council has been dissolved,” said BCCI President Shashank Manohar after a general annual meeting. “All decisions were taken unanimously by the members.”

The changes complete the fall of Modi from one of the most powerful world cricket figures to a tarnished outsider who is now fighting to salvage his reputation after he was suspended in April on allegations of corruption.

Chirayu Amin, who owns Alembic pharmaceutical company and was formerly vice-president of the BCCI, was named the new IPL boss while Rajiv Shukla, a ruling-party politician and cricket insider, is the new BCCI vice-president.

Another politician, Farooq Abdullah, was appointed head of the BCCI marketing committee in place of Modi. Former Indian cricket skipper Sunil Gavaskar is not a part of the new IPL Governing Council team that was reconstituted in the meeting. Former Indian cricket captains Ravi Shastri and Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi have, however, been retained in the IPL Governing Council.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 30th, 2010.