Lull before IPL storm as Modi gears for a fight

Kuldip Lal

India is bracing for the next round of mudslinging in the Indian Premier League corruption scandal as the cricket tournament's chief prepares to take on the establishment to save his job.

Tension is mounting as the clock ticks down to a May 10 deadline set by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) for suspended IPL boss Lalit Modi to respond to the charges against him.

Modi, 46, was removed as head of the glitzy IPL last week pending an internal BCCI probe into allegations of corruption, tax evasion and money-laundering that sparked a federal tax investigation. He was also stood down as a BCCI vice-president and as chairman of the T20 Champions League, a separate club tournament organised jointly by India, Australia and South Africa.

Modi has been unusually quiet over the past week, even keeping away from his account on microblogging site Twitter, as he consults friends and lawyers while drafting the reply to the BCCI charges.

"Sorry, not been tweeting as been working on my reply to the show cause. So have had no time," said Modi's last post on Twitter on Monday.

Modi needs all the help he can get, for he appeared to be fast losing support both in the BCCI, which owns the cash-rich Twenty20 tournament, and the IPL's governing council.

Former India captain Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi, a member of the governing council, admitted Modi will find it difficult to be reinstated as the IPL chief and BCCI vice-president.

"We are awaiting answers to several questions put to him and, yes, it would help if he answers them to everyone's satisfaction," Pataudi told the Indian Express newspaper recently.

"But even so, coming back would be difficult as the problem with him was his style of functioning, which a lot of people had problems with."

The brash and aggressive Modi, the scion of a wealthy north Indian business family, has run the IPL as a virtual one-man show since its inception three years ago.

In an earlier Twitter post, Modi said: "I am still chairman of IPL. Just suspended. Wait - we have just begun." NEW DELHI, Thursday (AFP)