Mumbai, April 24 (Inditop.com) Two franchise owners have come out in support of Lalit Modi ahead of Monday’s crucial Indian Premier League (IPL) governing council meeting, saying the beleaguered commissioner of the Twenty20 league should be given some time to present his case.
Royal Challengers Bangalore owner Vijay Mallya said that Modi should be given some time to clear all the allegations regarding money laundering in the IPL.
“Lalit Modi is a friend of mine and I met him at the awards function last night. But we did not discuss the current controversy. I think he must be given some opportunity at some point of time to explain himself,” Mallya told reporters after a meeting with former Indian cricket board president Sharad Pawar.
“This whole controversy has become an unnecessary toofan. Yes, there may be some questions about the way in which IPL runs. Clearly some governing council members may not be happy. Let all that be properly investigated. But to rubbish the IPl as a league then start casting aspersions on owners, alleging black money involvement, alleging funds from tax havens, I think this is stretching things way way too far,” he added.
Bollywood star Shah Rukh Khan, owner of the Kolkata Knight Riders, tweeted his support for Modi on social networking site Twitter.
“Fast, furious and too much noise. like the T20 itself. hope it gets resolved as fast too for our friend lalit and franchisees,” said Khan.
Jay Mehta, a co-owner of the Knight Riders, also came out in support of Modi.
“I got into IPL because Lalit Modi is a friend. To make one person the fall guy for this is unfortunate. My investment in KKR was routed through Mauritius because I’m a British citizen. All my investments in India have been through a Mauritius company…that doesn’t mean there is money-laundering going on,” said Mehta.
Mallya also rubbished allegations of match-fixing and said the government is welcome to hold an inquiry.
“In case of foreign direct investment in our country, money comes from Mauritius or Switzerland, nobody questions it. How can it certainly become a big issue when it comes to IPL investigations?
“The finance ministry, I had heard on TV, has promised a full inquiry into all this, let the inquiry be conducted. Till then, I don’t think we should jump into conclusions. Yesterday, even something new appeared about match fixing. This is utter rubbish. Several of our political leaders are calling the IPL a gambling den which is completely not true,” he said.
Mallya was also unhappy with the politicians who are questioning the sanctity of the IPL.
“If they don’t understand success of the world’s sixth largest sporting league, they should do their homework. They should look at other competitive leagues in the world then figure out what the IPL really is.
“I don’t think they even understand the business model of IPL. It is all very easy to make allegations, but I think we should all calm down till the investigations are done and then conclude what we need to. The ultimate part is too many people are jumping on to the bandwagon. Several political parties are now using this as an excuse to make a big issue out of this. Let them wait for an investigation to be completed,” Mallya maintained.
“See if there is any prima facie evidence of wrongdoing and then do whatever needs to done thereafter. But right now there is too much speculation, things are actually way way out of control,” he added.
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