Lalit Modi shot into international fame not because he is on the board of the multi billion Modi Enterprises or Godfrey Philips but because he was the father of IPL. The IPL success has made him a celebrity that has even started appearing on TV commercials of late!
Unfortunately the shrewd businessman, who almost always think of money alone, put behind the human values and spirit of cricket when he expected the English team to continue the test part of the on going tour in India amidst terrorist attack. First of all conducting the Champions League Twenty20 in India amidst tight international schedule itself was a bad idea. Especially on the same year when we already got to see too many Twenty20 encounters in ICL, IPL and more. Our man must have been thoroughly frustrated when the terrorist attacks hit Mumbai this week not because of the number of people died but because of the money lost due to cancellation of the Champions League. As a last try, he wanted the English team to come back in less than two weeks to complete the test series.
The British media already frustrated with the way the India-England one-day series went, picked on him instantly and lambasted! I thought they are right! The BCCI and its money minded monkeys seem to be interested only in playing as many matches in India as possible, regardless of the political and security conditions. This is a good lesson to the Indian cricket authorities that the power and money that they enjoy may be short lived in case of unexpected events like this spurt out.
Tail Piece: Lalit Modi may be the father of IPL. But I thought Kapil Dev and his team are the ones who brought in the concept though they didn’t have this kind of money and franchise model to monetize and market the same the way Modi did. Of course, Kapil is not as shrewd as Mr.Modi. And in this cricket-crazy nation, probably father of IPL is bigger than father of the nation?