Lalit Modi Threatens Legal Action Against Giles Clarke
Lalit Modi
Modi, suspended by the Board of Control for Cricket in India minutes after the final of the third edition of the IPL in April, is facing three accusations from the BCCI, covering allegations of corruption, fraud and money laundering.
The second charge was based on an email from Clarke, accusing Modi of indulging in activities which were “detrimental to Indian cricket, English cricket and world cricket at large”.
Clarke alleged Modi was plotting to form a rebel Twenty20 competition in England and had held talks with some counties.
A statement issued on Modi’s behalf today read: “Lalit Modi has issued proceedings for libel today in the High Court in London against Giles Clarke, the chairman of the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB).
“Mr Modi complains of defamatory allegations made in an email sent by Mr Clarke on 2 May 2010 to Shashank Manohar, the president of the Board of Control for Cricket in India and others.
“In his email Mr Clarke alleged that Mr Modi was planning to destroy world cricket by setting up a rebel league in contravention of ICC regulations.
“Mr Modi utterly refutes Giles Clarke’s claims and has made this clear in detailed submissions made to the BCCI on 31 May 2010.”
Modi earlier this month reiterated he has no intention of walking away from his post and hit out at Clarke for tarnishing his name.
“I am not the type to give up and walk away,” he told The Daily Telegraph.”The IPL is absolutely and totally clean, there are no doubts about that.”
He continued: “What Giles Clarke has said and done is absolutely not true and I have done this [taken legal action] because he has tarnished my name for no reason.
“Many boards have come to us and wanted to know what it is all about and we have given them our view on it. That is exactly what we did with these people.
“What I said to them is that, like any franchise owner, whether it is football or basketball, if he has had a good experience he may look at other areas to invest.
“When the ECB does want to do something I am sure they [IPL owners] will want to do something. But whether that happens or doesn’t happen depends on what the proposal is.
“I have also been fighting unauthorised cricket since the day I got in. I was the one who said boards must remain in control.
“Overnight, for someone to turn around and say something contrary is absolutely going against the grain of what I have done.”
Courtesy of The Telegraph
No More IPL After-Parties
IPL Chairman: The heat is on
The interim chairman of the Indian Premier League has promised a clean-up of tournament that will include the scrapping of the controversial after-match parties.
“I don’t know about the cheerleaders, but the IPL party nights will be stopped,” Chirayu Amin said.
The after-match parties attracted controversy after people paid up to R8 000 each to mingle with cricketers, fashion models and Bollywood stars.
Amin promised a “bigger, better and transparent” IPL next year.
On Sunday, Indian cricket officials suspended IPL chairman Lalit Modi as part of an investigation into corruption allegations that include alleged franchise-bid rigging and broadcasting rights irregularities.
Modi has denied all accusations.
“The cleaning up is already happening. My job is to run IPL in the most transparent manner,” Amin said. “My job is to interact with franchises and assure them that their investment is safe and will flourish. IPL’s brand image is strong and nobody can touch that. It’s a storm but it will pass.”
“Nothing is out of control. There has to be a total audit of things. Some documents are missing and we are looking into it,” he said.
Last Chance To Shine For Proteas
JP Duminy will be hoping to help the Mumbai Indians through to the IPL final.
After five weeks of non-stop Twenty20 action, the Indian Premier League finally reaches the business end, with the first of two semifinals today. There’s plenty still to play for. Obviously, the overall honour of being champion is first prize, while clinching a lucrative T20 Champions League spot (the two finalists, and winner of the third/fourth playoff go through) is also sought after, but for many of the players, these last few games also offer the chance to show their national coaches they have what it takes to perform on the big stage.
And for the Proteas on display, it’s no different – with some players needing a stand-out performance more than others.
The first semifinal sees the table-topping Mumbai Indians taking on the Royal Challengers Bangalore, who have flattered to deceive this season, despite their awesome squad.
It certainly is a ‘tale of two tournaments’ for the Proteas’ batting duo on display today. Jacques Kallis no longer needs to prove his Twenty20 credentials – this IPL has shown that he can score runs quickly and can bat through the innings. He’s scored 542 runs in the tournament, with only the great Sachin Tendulkar ahead of him. If he could help RCB to a surprise victory over Mumbai, it would increase his status as a match-winner, which has often been the criticism of him.
On the other side of the field is Proteas’ midfielder JP Duminy. Off form early in the competition, he was dropped as the Mumbai Indians continued to win with runs from their other batters. He received a late recall after Mumbai suffered a shock defeat to Chennai and has been grabbed that opportunity with one hand at least. Scores of 42* and 21* in two of his last three outings showed glimpses of the Duminy of old – a outstanding performance in the semi will certainly make coach Corrie van Zyl feel more confident about the Proteas’ middle order.
Tomorrow the Chennai Super Kings take on the defending champions, the Deccan Chargers. While it looks highly unlikely that the truly disappointing Herschelle Gibbs will get a place in Deccan’s starting line-up, CSK should feature two SA all-rounders hoping to enhance their claims of a World Cup first-team spot.
Albie Morkel is the incumbent all-rounder in the SA T20 side, and his solid performances for Chennai should see him retain that mantle. Coming in late in Chennai’s batting order, Morkel has maintained a impressive strike rate of 147 – and has come up with the big shots when needed.
For the unfortunate Justin Kemp, who has had a stop-start season due to injuries, the semifinal offers the biggest chance to show his stuff. The second all-rounder position in the Proteas T20 line-up is not without worries – and an impressive display from the Cobras big hitter in the next two games could see him greatly enhance his claims.
Lee’s World Cup In Doubt
Brett Lee is a doubtful for the ICC World Twenty20.
Injuries woes have followed Lee around like a rash. The latest problem resulted from a broken thumb picked up during the King’s XI Punjab’s victory over the Mumbai Indians in IPL 3.
“It is unfortunate that Brett Lee has to leave the tournament due to a fractured thumb,” said Kumar Sangakkara, the captain of Punjab, who said he hoped Lee would not miss the World Twenty20. “I hope not as we know he is a world-class performer and we would like him to be back fit soon.”
Lee struggled in the opening matches of the IPL, and found it difficult to find his form after an elbow injury kept him out of action for most of the summer. Nevertheless Aussie coach Tim Nielsen would still like to have the speedy Lee in the squad for the Caribbean event.
”All we can do is wait and see how it reacts over the next four or five days before we have our camp and head off to the West Indies,” Nielsen told the Age on Wednesday. “Hopefully it will heal, and the scans and things he’s having at the moment will show exactly the nature of the damage and what the likelihood of him playing is.”
The ICC World Twenty20 kicks off on the 30 April.
Courtesy www.cricinfo.com
IPL Stars To Miss World Cup
Irfan Pathan celebrates another wicket for the King's XI Punjab.
Last year, India headed into the ICC World Twenty20 in England as hot favourites. While other countries benefitted from their players’ participation in the IPL, India had surely gained the most advantage from the T20 jamboree. With each IPL side fielding seven local players per match as part of the tournament’s rules, India’s young and upcoming cricketers had earned the ideal opportunity to test their skills against the world’s best.
Sadly for Indian cricket fans, the experience gained from the IPL didn’t translate into tournament success as they failed to make it to the semifinal stage last year.
Again this year the Indian selectors were spoilt for choice when it came to determining the squad for the Caribbean. But have they made the correct decisions?
Here are five on-form IPL cricketers who will be missing out on the ICC World Twenty20 at the end of the month…
Robin Uthappa
Can you believe the Royal Challengers Bangalore batter is only 24 four years of age? He seems to have been around for a lot longer. With the enthusiasm of youth, he has been RCB’s chief bludgeoner at this year’s IPL. If you’ve seen him hit a six, you’ll know that it stays hit. So far he’s notched up 318 runs at a strike-rate of 178.65 and including 24 ‘DLF Maximums’ (aka sixes) – the tournament record so far. He also keeps wicket – making him an almost obvious choice for the squad. Yes? Sadly the answer is no, as the Indian selectors have gone for the Delhi Daredevils’ Dinesh Karthik as second-choice keeper. Karthik is a solid option – but most fans would have loved to see the clean striking of Uthappa at the World Cup.
Murali Vijay
Murali Vijay’s transformation from steady Test batter to explosive T20 hitter sadly came too late to warrant selection for this year’s ICC World Twenty20. But anybody who witnessed his magnificent 56-ball 127 for the Chennai Super Kings against Rajasthan earlier in this year’s IPL would have felt strongly that Vijay has a special talent. The 26-year-old, who like most Indian batters cites Sachin Tendulkar as his hero, blasted 11 sixes and eight fours that day to help Chennai post the biggest-ever IPL total. His batting exploits so far this season have even put the performances of fellow Chennai opener Matthew Hayden in the shade – a true indicator of his fine form. Oh, and don’t call him Murali – like most southern Indians, he only has one name which is Vijay (Murali is his father’s name).
Pragyan Ohja and Amit Mishra
The two leading wicket-takers in this year’s IPL are both spinners and are both Indian. But neither are India’s first nor second-choice tweakers for this year’s ICC World Twenty20 – those titles belongs to Harbhajan Singh and Piyush Chawla. Instead Pragyan Ohja (with 18 wickets for the Deccan Chargers) and Amit Mishra (with 16 wickets for the Delhi Daredevils) will be sitting at home while the Indian team takes to the field on Caribbean wickets that should be fairly conducive to spin. The 23-year-old Ohja has played four T20Is for India, while Mishra has only achieved highest honours in the Test and ODI arenas. Both can certainly count themselves unlucky to lose out to Chawla, whose form so far for the King’s XI Punjab has been solid as opposed to inspirational.
Irfan Pathan
How do you conceivably travel to the game’s premier T20 tournament without an all-rounder of the class of Irfan Pathan? The Man of the Match in the 2007 ICC World Twenty20 Final, Pathan’s back injury woes earlier this season meant he missed out on selection for the World Cup squad. But the 25-year-old veteran of 107 ODIs for India has clearly been fit enough to put in impressive performances for the King’s XI Punjab this year – he’s taken 14 wickets so far in the competition (the most for his team) and scored 231 runs, just four short of teammate Yuvraj Singh, who is in the World Cup squad. With plenty of batting all-rounders in the Indian team (Rohit Sharma, young Ravindra Jadeja, who missed out on the IPL due to contractual controversy, and Yuvraj Singh) India might be missing a beat to have excluded bowling all-rounder Pathan.
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