13 April,2010 07:17 AM IST | | Sandeep Bamzai
IPL commissioner Lalit Modi as is his wont finds himself in the wars once again. When the Indian Premier League was being rigged up and the bidding process was completed in January, 2008; there was a whiff of scandal in the air. Emerging Media which bagged the Jaipur franchise christening it Rajasthan Royals had Modi's brother in law Suresh Chellaram as the lead investor in the consortium while the consortium of Mohit Burman, Ness Wadia, Karan Paul and Priety Zinta which bagged the Mohali franchise Kings XI Punjab also had a Modi connection.
Mohit's brother Gaurav based in the UK is Modi's step son in law. While allegations of IPL being the Indian Parivar League surfaced and then got subsumed in the din created by the phenomenal success of season one, motormouths in the grapevine business spoke about how connections mattered in the cash awash bulge bracket IPL.
But Modi rode that one out just as he has ridden many other controversies over the last couple of years. But controversy and Modi go hand in hand. So, on Monday morning, media was buzzing with Modi's latest tweets. Ironical that he had tweeted on the government's very own Mr Twitter - Minister of State for External Affairs - Shashi Tharoor in a manner of speaking. Tharoor's dalliances with Twitter have got him into enough trouble already. But this time, Modi used the same weapon to open a can of worms. Time out...Rewind...
Modi's tweets revealed the real shareholders, the shadow promoters. This after MoS Tharoor has vehemently denied any economic interest in the Kochi winning franchise Rendezvous Sports World. He has been telling all and sundry that he proved to be the matchmaker at the wedding, bringing various like minded people together to make the winning bid of $333.33 million. But by Monday the 'mentor's' stated position proved to be fallacy. Which raises questions of integrity and ethicality. Why? Of the 25 per cent shadow promoters who hold free equity in the franchise, as much as 18 to 20 per cent is owned by Sunanda Pushkar. So, who is Sunanda Pushkar? On Monday, media reported that Tharoor is planning to divorce his second wife - Christa Giles, a Canadian civil servant who works with the UN on disarmament issues.
And, yes, he is planning to marry Sunanda Pushkar whose Linkedin profile reveals that she is sales manager in Dubai with TECOM Investments. Tecom is a subsidiary of Dubai Holdings which is engaged in the commercial real estate industry. That Modi is fuming because enormous pressure was exerted on him by a central minister not to reveal Sunanda Pushkar's name. Now, if that is true, then there is something seriously amiss. For it is obvious that the central minister is Tharoor. Rendezvous may have hit back by raising Cain over Kings XI Punjab and Rajasthan Royals etymology. But then the question is why did Tharoor lie? Rendezvous may have done the smart thing by taking this matter where the waters have been muddied to the BCCI and its president Shashank Manohar. That however, does not alter the legality and legitimacy of Tharoor's involvement with Rendezvous, something which he has denied outright. Will the Congress close ranks against the interloper or will Modi's tweet be the end of Tharoor, even as he got away with his own tweets. Rendezvous now wants to sue Modi since
it believes that Modi is favouring Ahmedabad over Kochi.
The opacity of shareholding in IPL team ownership structures has been an issue for sometime now. By divulging that 25 per cent free equity was held by Kisan, Shailender & Pushpa Gaikwad, Sunanda Pushkar, Puja Gulathi, Jayant Kotalwar, Vishnu Prasad and Sundip Agarwal, Modi has ensured that Banquo's ghost has come back to haunt Rendezvous. Meanwhile, all eyes on Tharoor.
The writer is a well known sports and business journalist
