News Sports Cricket How Lalit Modi is giving BCCI brass sleepless nights?

How Lalit Modi is giving BCCI brass sleepless nights?

New Delhi: In six years Lalit Modi rose to such heights in Indian cricket in the new millennium that no one thought his fall would be as meteoric. When he was thrown out of the

Modi's second innings as RCA chief and the return of his passport came at an inopportune moment for the BCCI and its court-suspended president N. Srinivasan, who himself is struggling to extricate himself out of maze of administrative charges and familial problems.

The BCCI had no choice but to act quickly to stop Modi from barging into the Annual General Meeting (AGM) next month and suspended the RCA.

A fortnight ago the board set up a five-member ad-hoc committee to oversee the running of cricket in Rajasthan and also Bihar where one of the faction leaders is relentlessly fighting BCCI and Srinivasan.

Not surprisingly, the RCA challenged the board's action of asking former India player and secretary of the Karnataka State Cricket Association Brijesh Patel to head a panel to oversee the state cricket.

A beaming Modi was all over TV studios linked to his base in London after the court decision to return his passport.

He was quick to tell TV interviewers that he is happy that he stands vindicated and also that he is clearly not interested in either becoming the president of the BCCI or in taking over again the reins of the IPL.

He should have, perhaps, qualified his statement about becoming board chief adding "not now."

At the same time he rants that there are some rotten apple (read Srinivasan and his cohorts) in the board and they will have to go and that both BCCI and ICC are on his radar.

He thunders that cricket at all levels from Twenty20 domestic leagues world over, first-class cricket and Future Tests Programme (FTP) need overhaul for the betterment of the game.

It is clear he has an ambitious plan. Call it his confidence or arrogance he leaves no one in doubt that he is back for a long haul and in Muhammad Ali style he has announced that he is a "master strategist", telling his opponents to watch out for him.

Modi's good tidings has another coincidence, his self-confessed Guru Inderjit Singh Bindra has decided to withdraw from all cricket affairs, quitting first as president of the Punjab Cricket Association.

It was Bindra who brought him into the board and stood by him in his worst times when all others in the board decided to get even with him.