Suspended Indian Premier League (IPL) chairman Lalit Modi came out in support of Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar saying he had nothing to do with IPL bids for new franchises. “Pawar and his family had nothing to do with the bid made by Anirudh Deshpande. He or his family have no stake in any IPL team nor did they bid for any team,” Modi wrote on social networking site Twitter.
The statement came after a newspaper reported on Friday that Pawar, his wife and daughter held over 16 per cent stake in City Corp, a firm that had bid for the Pune franchise this year. Modi said Deshpande, the managing director and majority shareholder of City Corp, had bid for the Pune franchise in his individual capacity.
City Corp had bid around Rs 1,200 crore for the Pune franchise. Incidentally, the bid was won by Sahara, which paid a whopping Rs 1,700 crore. Modi also said Deshpande would have formed a new company had he won the bid with other promoters Akruti Builders and Chirayu Amin. Amin was appointed the interim IPL chairman after Modi was suspended by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) on charges of mis-conduct this April.
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