Kolkata : Founder of IPL, Lalit Modi, took a dig at 5 times IPL champion Chennai Super Kings (CSK) regarding ‘fixing’ in the league.
Modi has accused former Cricket administrator and CSK owner N.Srinivasan. The later also served as BCCI President & ICC Chairman in past.
Taking dig at Srinivasan, Modi accused him of rigging auction for buying English all-rounder Andrew Flintoff and putting Chennai umpires in CSK matches. He also said that Srinivasan didn’t want IPL to happen.
“Pick out everything-auction rigging. I gave Flintoff to Srinivasan. Yes, we did it. No doubts about it; every team knew about it. Srinivasan wasn’t going to let the IPL happen. He was a thorn in our Board. Yes, we told everybody not to pick (Andrew) Flintoff. Yes, that I did-because Srinivasan said ‘I want Flintoff’,” Lalit Modi mentioned,” said Lalit Modi on Raj Shamani’s YouTube podcast.
“When everybody started going on the bandwagon, he was also a member of the board. He was a big adversary of mine. I went up against him, and he did many things. Umpire fixing-he accused me of it, and I accused him right back. He would change the umpire. At first, I didn’t think much about it. But when I realized he was putting a Chennai umpire on a Chennai game, it became an issue for me. That’s called indirect fixing. When I started exposing those things, he went totally against me”, Modi claimed.
CSK triumphed IPL Titles 5 times in – 2010, 2011, 2018, 2021, 2023. They also found them amidst betting and spot fixing scandals in 2013 IPL, after which they’re banned for 2 years in 2016-17 seasons.
