The biggest compliment Lalit Modi got is from the man he reduced from a king to a commoner in the Indian cricket board, Jagmohan Dalmiya.
Dalmiya may have hated Modi for the methods he has adopted to get rid of him, but after the first year of the Indian Premier League he called him to shower unabashed praise. “Honestly, I doubt if I could have conceptualised anything like this.” It has come from a man who himself is considered the marketing wizard before Modi’s arrival on the scene.
The compliment was twisted out of context and some in the board even started getting nightmares about the two joining hands. They knew that would be a deadly combination.
Yet, both men stand condemned. One is fighting court cases to save honour and the other is preparing for the long haul, answering charges of devious deals, money laundering, betting and, worse, match-fixing. The irony is the men who joined hands with Modi to hound Dalmiya out have used the same tactics to pull Modi down.
IPL’s success has created envy and suspicion and like all successful men he is now out of everyone’s reach. Other cricket boards detest him for luring their players and prompting some of them to even quit international cricket.
IPL is often described as a domestic competition, but Modi has given it a truly global marketing face, something others now want to replicate in other sports in other countries.
You give Modi onions and he will sell them as apples, not by cheating or conceit, but by his sheer ability to brand and package a product. You sell him a vision and if he is convinced he will market it. His father K. K. Modi has sized him up like a true business tycoon. He said his son is facing the charges only because he has created such a huge wealth for Indian cricket singlehandedly. Modi has got not only the IPL wealthy, but the Indian board too.
From a nondescript Rs.200 crore when he entered it, the board jumped to Rs.1,000 crore in the first year; three times that in the next two years and in the fourth it was worth Rs.1 billion. He sold rights for every conceivable item connected with cricket, in some cases 100 times more than what it was priced before he took over as marketing of the board.
No one took note of him all that seriously as he quietly persuaded ESPN to come to India and market cricket when the American television channel did not know what the sport is all about. He marketed the channel and the sport. He did the same with Ten Sports and even DD Sports. How could he do all this?
Modi does not believe in a huge office set-up, he likes to work with a few dedicated, young business and marketing executives. Being a workaholic himself, he drives all around him to adapt to his style of 24X7 work culture. He spent more time in aircraft than in his king-size bed at home. He is always on the move. In short, he had acquired all the qualities of Jagguda, as Dalmiya is affectionately addressed, plus the sophistication of a modern-day jet-setter.
His philosophy is simple: You can’t build a brand with too many people interfering.
No wonder, he is brash and doesn’t need an excuse to tick off people.
That’s one Jaggu trait he couldn’t shake off. His wellwishers wanted him to learn the art of diplomacy and suffer fools, but he will have none of it.
He knew exactly how to market a product through media. He believed in televised news conferences and marketing malls with multiplexes. That’s how he succeeded in making the IPL what it is and he says he has no regrets, projecting himself with the Bollywood in tow.
In his lexicon, there is no word “we”, it is always I and that has antagonised the Board’s other biggies who felt alighted and ignored. But the corporate honchos elsewhere loved his company as they recognised the power he has created for them.
To be fair to Modi, his ego is the offshoot of his enormous achievement and even his detractors give it to him his success. He often told his fellow board members that there was no use of throwing Jaggu out if you can’t surpass his achievements. He has done it and his other sleeping partners in the board will enjoy it.
He has treaded on too many corns and it took a combination of political influence and business jealousy to bring him down.
“There is no question of me resigning, there is no need for me to step down. I will present all the facts against all the allegations,” he thundered when he was confronted with what he says are half-truths, innuendoes, inspired leaks and bazaar gossip. If and when he gets the opportunity, he is confident he can extricate himself out of the mess, he has such incriminating material to disclose.
Modi, indeed, will have a tough time explaining all the charges the board chief listed Monday. For all his bravado, he will be hard put to tell the world that he has not manipulated the bids or allowed the broadcasters to get away with underhand dealings. The most intriguing fact is the missing documents from both the board’s office as well as the IPL office when everything was carried out in the open and televised domain. Unless, someone is hinting that the fence itself has eaten the crop.
