Lalit Modi Back in SLPL? BCCI Thinks So.

The real reason the BCCI is pulling the Indian cricketers out of the SLPL apparently goes by the name of Lalit Modi, a name the hallowed corridors dare not take on their lips anymore.

Lalit Modi

The BCCI cited that they were unconvinced about the real ownership of the Sri Lankan Premier League - the SLPL – since the Sri Lankan cricket board had given up the marketing to a Singapore based firm by the name of Somerset. Although compliant earlier, the BCCI stiffened on their decision over the weekend, thereby throwing the Sri Lankan cricket plans haywire.

Several Indian cricketers were expected to participate in the tournament despite the fact that the dates would clash with India’s national duties. While India’s senior cricketers were not part of the plans, the Sri Lankan cricket board was planning on a few Indian cricketers who had made a name for themselves to justify the Indian presence.

However, the BCCI decision has sent the Sri Lankan cricket board scurrying to make plans to convince the BCCI that this was a Sri Lanka Cricket initiative and would remain so, ensuring that the safeguarding of Indian cricketers would remain in their hands. The BCCI has made no comment thereafter.

But the real reason the BCCI suspects that the Indian cricketers may be caught in a tangle is because the BCCI has reason to believe that those working with the SLPL have previously shared tied with the former IPL chairman and commissioner, Lalit Modi, who is presently holed up in London under claims of death threats but also, evading charges of financial irregularities. The BCCI has cut all ties associated with Modi since the IPL 3 controversies and even the whiff of an association has been enough for the BCCI to steer clear.

Modi had called the Indian Premier League his baby and the tumultuous relationship has meant that the BCCI has wanted to sever all ties with Modi and even brought up criminal charges against him. Modi was also accused by the England and Wales Cricket Board of trying to form a rebel Twenty20 league in England. Now with the idea that Modi may behind another venture in some remote control form, the BCCI has decided prevention is better than trouble and pulled the plug on Sri Lankan cricket at a time when the SLC was expecting the BCCI to return the favour by releasing their cricketers as they have done for the IPL, particularly following the chaos that ensued Sri Lankan cricketers’ participation in the IPL 4 season even as Sri Lanka were to commence on their tour of England.

The BCCI decided to wipe out the letter ‘M’ from every aspect of India’s Twenty20 tournament and although the IPL 4 was devoid some of the glare and shady after parties, cricket was given prime precedence by the board, although that could not possibly be the reason why the IPL 4 turned up with such poor ratings. Rather the result of those eyeballs has been attributed to the uncovering of the controversies that plagued the IPL 3, the feeling of being taken on a joy ride at their expense did not gel with nouveau cricket fans who switched back to their soap operas as also the fact that the ICC Cricket World Cup 2011 had brought out national fervor to a peak, thereby rendering everything else a shade more redundant.