Lalit Modi replies to second showcause notice from BCCI

The suspended Indian Premier League (IPL) Commissioner Lalit Modi replied to the second showcause notice issued by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) through an email last night, his legal counsel Mehmood Abdi said this morning.

"Yes, he has sent the reply (by e-mail) last night," said Abdi, who is scheduled to submit the hard-copy of the reply - a 24-page document - to the BCCI headquarters here today.

In the second showcause notice, the BCCI accused Modi of planning a rebel Twenty20 league in England.

On May 15, Modi had replied to the first showcause served on him soon after the conclusion of IPL's third edition on April 25 over allegations of murky financial deals in running the Twenty20 event.

He was served a second showcause by the BCCI on May 6 based on an e-mail sent to the Board by England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) Chairman Giles Clarke.

In his e-mail, Clarke leveled serious charges against Modi that the Board found "detrimental to Indian cricket, English cricket and the world cricket at large."

The notice referred to Modi's March 31 meeting in Delhi with representatives of English counties Yorkshire, Lancashire and Warwickshire in which he allegedly talked about a parallel Twenty20 league in England and Wales in which eight existing franchises would bid for nine counties in the UK.

Yesterday, Modi sent a defamation notice to Clarke, who had accused the suspended Commissioner of hatching a plan to destroy the structure of world and English cricket.

Modi's defamation notice mentions Clarke's May 2nd e-mail to BCCI President Shashank Manohar wherein the ECB boss had accused the suspended IPL chief of seeking to float a rebel league in England, violating International Cricket Council regulations.

The defamation notice was sent to Clarke through Modi's London-based solicitors Carter-Ruck and it has given the ECB chief seven days' time to provide a "full and unconditional apology and retraction in a form, manner and terms to be agreed," according to sources close to Modi.