New Delhi, April 19 (Inditop.com) With charges of money laundering flowing thick and fast, it seems Indian Premier League (IPL) chief Lalit Modi will have a lot of explain as the government gears up to probe all dealings of the $4.1 billion cricketing extravagana.
What is expected to make matters worse is that IPL’s parent, the all-powerful Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), has no mention on the IPL site of who is its actual owner and only lists Modi as its administrator and official contact.
Ask Sanjay Dixit, a senior officer of the Indian Administrative Service who brought Modi into the Rajasthan Cricket Association (RCA). He has curious tales now about his one-time-friend-turned foe and has promised to spill the beans.
“He was a good friend of mine and I supported him to fight the RCA election in 2005,” Dixit told IANS.
“Subsequently, Modi was nominated for BCCI vice-president’s post. And I slowly realised that this man is not clean. He doesn’t believe in the democratic way of functioning. So I decided to take him on and throw him out of the RCA.”
At the crux of this whole saga, which is as interesting as some of the T20 matches of IPL, is the money involved, running into millions of dollars, which various economic offences wings of the government now feel, may not be all from legal sources.
In the last three years, the IPL has broken all records of revenue generation.
The eight franchises together bid Rs.28.53 billion ($640.9 million) in 2008 and pay 10 percent of the amount each year before the tournament begins. IPL also gets 20 percent share of what Sony Set Max earns from telecast rights.
The IPL also gets a similar share from central sponsors like DLF or Vodafone.
The icing on the cake was the new rights sold this year for telecasting the matches live on YouTube and for multiplex rights. The IPL has also levied a licensing fee from Viacom network, which has the rights to show the after match party.
These add to another few billions.
Now, the two new franchises — Sahara group and Rendezvous Sports — were sold this year for an astronomical sum of Rs.32.35 billion ($726.6 million) – overrunning the millions coughed up by the existing eight franchise.
Little wonder, the government has now ordered parallel probes by virtually all its economic intelligence units into the sources and use of funds by franchisees of the Indian Premier League (IPL) to unearth possible tax evasions and flouting of rules.
Its is not that every entity involved in IPL has a murky background.
In 2008, India’s top business house Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Industries made the highest bid for the Mumbai team with $99 million. Now, the Sahara Group has bid $370 million for the Pune team.
What otherwise caught the attention of people was the bid by a company called Rendezvous Sports World, which forked out $333 million for the Kochi team — well above the base price of $225 million. Now many are asking about the source of such large funds and their legitimacy.
The current controversy started after the political row that followed over allegations that Sunanda Pushkar had received sweat (free) equity from Rendezvous Sports World for the professional services she would render over the next 10 years.
Pushkar has been a friend of Shashi Tharoor, who had to resign as minister of state for external affairs.
Even though the tax administration claims it had started the probe earlier, the murky affairs started coming to light after a tweet by Modi who sought to link Tharoor and Pushkar and said he will reveal the real owners of Rendezvous eventually.
But little did he realise that he will himself be the subject of a major probe.
“The IPL website — iplt20.com — has a market worth of approximately Rs.800 crores ($175 million). Any guesses as to the registered owner. Hint: It is not BCCI,” said Dixit, trying to allude that there was thin line dividing IPL and Nodi’s identities.
The saga does not end here.
The rights for developing and maintaining the IPL website was bagged by a company called Global Cricket Ventures — a Mauritius-based company that is co-owned by Gaurav Burman, step-son-in-law of Modi.
This apart, Burman’s brother Mohit is a co-owner of Kings XI Punjab — another of the eight original franchises. It has also been revealed that Modi’s brother-in-law Suresh Chelaram, a Nigeria-based businessman, owns a sizeable stake in Rajasthan Royals.
With Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee himself assuring parliament that every aspect of IPL will be probed and no wrong-doer spared, the biggest private sporting extravaganza in India – and one of the most lucrative in the world – is expected to be as sizzling outside stadia as its has been inside.
