Lalit Modi, founder of IPL, recently opened up on entire controversial and scandals that took place during his stint in the Indian Premier League. At a time when IPL 2025 Auction is the talking point, Lalit Modi the 'IPL Mastermind' dropped multiple bombshells in a podcast with Raj Shamani. He also opened up with his fight with underworld don Dawood Ibrahim. In fact, Shamani asked Lalit Modi whether Dawood Ibrahim tried to kill him because he wanted to own an IPL team or not.
Lalit Modi on Dawood Ibrahim's interest in IPL
The IPL founder Lalit Modi on whether he received any death threats or extortion calls, said, "There were many. Dawood (Ibrahim) was after me. It was the front page story in year 2. Not because he wanted a team, but because he was fixing the matches. But, I had zero policy of fixing matches. I did not allow him. Anti-corruption was a very big part of my thing and I saw the integrity of the game was extremely important.
I accused ICL of match-fixing and I got into a lot of trouble legally in England with Chris Gayle taking me into court and winning against me. Later, it was found that he had lied to the judges and the verdict was overturned. So, I was found right. So, I got death threats many times from Dawood Ibrahim. He did try to take shots at me and tried to do it in many places which is all available on the web."
Why did Lalit Modi flee India?
Lalit Modi further said, "I left the country (India) because of death threats. I can come to India because there are no legal case against me. Dawood Ibrahim made the threat to me first after IPL 1..because I was an anti-commissioner too. I was very strict. If you look back, in three years of me being an anti-corruption commissioner there was no single case of corruption. Betting was huge. It was $2 billion a game. It is illegal even today. But, the books are controlled by the person called Dawood Ibrahim."
"I did not know this, I took a strict stand against fixing and betting. So, I became the target. An open-year target. We were in South Africa for IPL Season 2. We haven't gone into the South African controversy. There was a hit on me. The D-gang also tried to take a hit on me in Thailand... My son got kidnapped in the UK. All of this is because me not looking the other way...They offered big money that you would not refuse. But, I refused."
Lalit Modi 'The Fugitive'
For those who are unaware, during his tenure as former vice-president of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), Lalit Modi was accused of bid-rigging and money laundering, along with contravention of provisions of Foreign Exchange Management Act, 1999 (FEMA) for several hundred crores. Lalit Modi is currently living in London but has been declared a fugitive.
The former IPL head has repeatedly claimed that he cannot be called a “fugitive” because he has not been convicted by any court. However, he has been wanted by Indian law enforcement agencies since he left India in 2010 and is accused of embezzling around Rs 125 crores from the country’s cricket board during 2009 and 2010.