IPL founder Lalit Modi rips into players for not paying apt tribute to COVID-caused deaths; provides blueprint on what the T20 league should do to demonstrate sensitivity and solidarity
IPL founder Lalit Modi. Pic/AFP
The voice comes down the phone line like it always had—at warp speed. Lalit Modi is in London and for the last three days, he has not been able to watch the IPL, the league he brought to life 14 seasons ago. “Because I was so frustrated to see the players not even doing anything for the public.”
He says, “Let’s not forget that history will document how the Indian cricketers reacted when a calamity of this magnitude stared India in the face.”
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Modi was founder, architect and engineer of the IPL, which he still refers to in social media as his baby. He has put a black ring around his social media handles, as a mark of mourning as the pandemic rips through India in a brutal second coming. Against this backdrop, Modi’s baby is something between a sullen 14-year-old trundling into its fourth week and a bot-driven pantomime on auto-pilot.
Modi says he finds it, “quite shameful, very, very in fact” that the cricketers “had not come out strongly on an every day basis. Not to have worn black bands, not to take a knee is something that baffles me.”
The IPL, he says, “could have done so much more. I don’t know who is stopping them. Every life matters, every Indian matters, this is a time for solidarity and coming together.”
How would IPL chairman and commissioner Modi have responded to the severity of the crisis? “I would’ve done something very different but I wouldn’t have stopped the games at all.” The IPL he has said is an industry which gives a livelihood to thousands of people. “Let’s not snatch that away from them. Let’s not deprive few more families of their daily bread. Some domestic cricketers make major earning through the IPL in these six-eight weeks to take care of almost that entire year’s earnings. Let’s not take that away.”
Lalit Modi’s 2021 IPL would have gone on, with several changes in plan, approach and outreach. After we’ve finished speaking on the phone, Modi dashes off a quick summary of our conversation via a long message. It’s not surprising: In his IPL honcho days, he would give lengthy interviews via his Blackberry. His 2021 IPL looks a thoughtful and engaged version than what we see on our televisions these days.
Back-up plans for venues
Let’s start with venues. Modi thought the plan to hold matches in Mumbai and Pune alone was originally a good one, but one that needed a rejigging as cases skyrocketed. “I don’t understand the plan to play these matches in heavily-affected centres—it could have been avoided and still can be avoided, it’s not that it can’t be moved to another centre. To take even a small bit of relief or resource or staff away from the pandemic is something that I would have avoided at all costs, I would not have allowed it.”
It required a nimbleness of thinking to move matches into their Plan B venues, like Hyderabad and Indore as fixed earlier, “If Plan B doesn’t work, go to Plan C, if that doesn’t work, go to Plan D. That’s what we were doing,” he says, referring to 2009 when the IPL had to be moved out of India due to the impending elections.
While the time required to create secure bio-bubbles—a minimum of two weeks—may appear to be far too long to permit a quick change of venues during the pandemic, the IPL’s decision makers had far more time than is imagined.
On March 15, 24 days before the IPL, a decision was taken to play the last six matches of the England tour of India minus crowds due to rising COVID-19 cases in Ahmedabad and Pune. More than three weeks is enough leadtime to work through the range of options.
Modi, not known for modesty, calls himself “a man of action and practicality” but had proved it by moving the IPL overseas in 2009. His blueprint on how to handle the IPL today demonstrates, among other things, his sensitivity towards the Indian cricket fan which runs far deeper than the lip service dished out from the BCCI high office today.
Asked what would he do about how the IPL presents itself today, Modi instantly rattled off ideas. “Every IPL match should start with a minute’s silence to pay homage to each life lost due to this pandemic.”
The players he says “can also bend the knee, they must pray for people lost. And they must wear a black band in all the matches, that’s a must, must, must.”
TV, he says, can do away with the post-match prize ceremony for individual performances. “Just have the captain interviews and that’s it. No extra show of huge cheques or money at the time of such despair.”
Cricketers he says, “are the sweethearts of this nation along with the Bollywood actors. And it is time for them to give out the right message.”
To uplift, he says, put a hand around the shoulder of the fans. “Show solidarity, show support, express concern, money isn’t everything. Even a kind word can heal a broken heart in these times.”
Modi wants the IPL’s broadcasting messaging around safety and biosecurity to be “more serious and more impactful” and move from the commentators to the players at the centre. “I would go as far as have the captains walk out for the toss with masks to put it across to the millions of youngsters watching to do the same when they’re outdoors.”
He wants players to carry badges or jerseys requesting people to get vaccinated, to encourage them to take the jab and “clear all myths and false propaganda against it.”
Indian cricket’s financial outlay during the pandemic needed to go wide and deep. “All cricketers should voluntarily give some portion of the IPL earnings for the victims.”
‘BCCI should pledge 10 per cent’
The cash-rich BCCI’s movement through the first three weeks have resembled those of apocalyptic zombies. Enough of the homilies, Modi wants cash down for those who need it most. “The BCCI should pledge to give 10 per cent at least of its IPL earnings over the last two years for Covid victims and rehabilitation of the families who have lost their breadwinners. It is the fans who have made the game of cricket so big in India. This is the time to react and give back to the nation.”
He calculated that 10 per cent of the IPL 2020 and 2021 sponsorships would be something close to “Rs 700-800 crores. Imagine the difference that money can make for rehabilitation and treatment of patients.”
Modi’s mind is still whirring as we speak. “There is so much you could have done…financed the vaccine, oxygen, respirators. Build temporary hospitals, use stadiums, create that kind of infrastructure.” He won’t speak of his own part in the relief work, “Joy they say is doing good on the sly. I will leave it at that.”
He chooses to not call names yet. “This is the time for teamwork and focus and togetherness. Let’s leave the blaming and shaming for after India comes out of this whole.”
Modi is not sounding like the man cast out into the wilderness by the BCCI, he is sounding like the leader the IPL at the very least, could do with today.
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