The Indian Premier League, Cricket Saga

Lalit Modi, who called himself, the IPL (Indian Premier League) Commissioner, has finally bit the dust. The hurricane of opinion against him started with his tweet from his Twitter account http://twitter.com/lalitkmodi about a week ago. He began by tweeting confidential details of the Kochi franchisee and by tweeting out Sunanda Pushkar's name. See the main lead story on Tehelka.com. When Modi did this, he also involved Pushkar's friend, Shashi Tharoor, who was India's junior Minister for Foreign Affairs and Ex-UN Under Secretary General. It was sad to see the honest Tharoor caught in this controversy. Tharoor had to resign from his position. However, Modi did not remain unscathed. The fury with which the media, the government and its agencies as well as Lalit Modi's detractors took after him, only shows how hated a figure he must have been.

Earlier, it seemed as if Lalit Modi would be able to come out safe and he had powerful backers in the Board for Cricket Control in India (BCCI) but his support has steadily vanished. The BCCI is going to hold its Governing Council meeting very soon to oust Modi and it seems they will succeed with 2/3rd majority. Earlier, there were reports that Modi had the backing of the Union Minister, Sharad Pawar and his NCP party, which is part of the ruling combine in India. He apparently also had the support of Farooq Abdullah of the National Conference and I.S.Bindra of the Punjab Cricket Association. But the way the public opinion has turned against Modi so swiftly has made even these people back off.

What a great fall!

Now, let us see what action the BCCI takes against Modi and what the Indian government might like to do in the face of the various charges which have been leveled against him.