Mumbai: It’s no longer Modi vs. Tharoor or Modi vs. the Government! The controversy, which started with an innocuous tweet from Lalit Modi, has now become a war of words between Modi and the BCCI, with the Board president, Shashank Manohar, rejecting Modi’s contention that the general council meeting to be held on April 26 would be illegal.

Manohar also clarified the status of N Srinivisan, the BCCI secretary who also owns the Chennai franchisee, which according to Modi was a conflict of interest.

“It is his view point, everybody is entitled to their viewpoint,” Manohar told PTI, in response to Modi’s contention that the meeting was unauthorised. “It is not a question of [whether or not Srinivasan is an] owner. He is not calling the meeting as an owner of a team, and in the board’s constitution, the secretary is the convenor of all meetings.”

Manohar insisted that there was no question of conflict of interest between Srinivasan’s dual roles of a BCCI functionary and an IPL team owner. “Whether there is conflict of interest is not an issue because Srinivasan, when this issue had cropped up, had sought the permission of Sharad Pawar, who was the president of the board then [when the first round of IPL team auctions was conducted in 2008]. Pawar had granted him permission to bid and it is not Mr. Srinivasan who was bidding, it was India Cements [Srinivasan's company that owns the Chennai franchise] which was bidding and after his bid was accepted, it was confirmed by the general body,” Manohar said.

Manohar also took a dig at Modi, saying that while the BCCI was aware of the extent of Srinivasan’s involvement in the IPL, the same was not true in Modi’s case. “Srinivasan was a declared bidder. If Modi and his relatives had a share in any of the franchises, he ought to have declared it at the meeting. I was not a member of governing council then. He ought to have told everybody,” Manohar said.

Modi, who was in Dubai to attend the ICC Executive meeting when the BCCI called for GC meeting, had asked for it to be pushed to May 1, in order to compile his documents and prepare his defence. Rumour mills are abuzz that the governing council is set to sack Modi in Monday’s meeting, irrespective of whether he attends it or not.

Related News Headlines

• No Related Post

Cricketain Latest

• Sachin, Dhoni, Sehwag in race for ICC awards
• No-ball row: Sangakkara takes full responsibility
• BCCI will not pursue no-ball matter with SLC
• BCCI denies compelling fatigued cricketers to play
• Bowlers in desperate need of a break: MS Dhoni
• Yuvraj out with dengue, Nehra uncertain for Sri Lanka ODI
• “Pakistan players should be allowed to play in IPL 4”
• ECB asks Pietersen to stay away from Lalit Modi
• Munaf Patel called up as cover for Ishant
• Final squads for CLT20 announced, Flintoff not in CSK squad