MODI PACKS A PUNCH

MODI PACKS A PUNCH
Dares BCCI to sack him l Threatens to expose ‘people’
PTI
MUMBAI, APRIL 24
Unfazed by the all-round attack on him, Lalit Modi today made it clear that he will not resign as IPL Commissioner and threatened to “expose some people” even as he dared the BCCI to sack him in Monday’s Governing Council meeting.
With the dice heavily loaded against him in the Monday meeting and indications that he may be sacked, Modi said people were pressurising him to resign and dared his detractors to remove him.
Modi made his views public by tweeting his remarks even as top BCCI officials met informally to consider the strategy for Monday meeting where a resolution is likely to be brought forward for removing him if he absents himself.
The BCCI President Shashank Manohar, vice-President Arun Jaitely, secretary N Srinivasan, IPL vice-Chairman Niranjan Shah, finance and media committee chairman Rajiv Shukla and Chief Administrative Officer Ratnakar Shetty were present at the meeting which went through documents to prepare the grounds for laying charges against Modi.
Elsewhere, Modi got the backing of franchise owners, including Vijay Mallya Shah Rukh Khan and Preity Zinta, who hailed him for the success of the IPL and said he should be given a chance to redeem himself.
“People pressurising me to resign – I can tell you (it) will not happen. Let them remove me then,” he wrote. “What we have done has been there for all of you to see for the past four years. No one can take that away,” he said.
He also had a hint of threat to his opponents. “Wait for the IPL to finish. I will reveal the men who have tried to bring disrepute to the game and how we stopped them from doing it,” he said.
“I am not the type to quit. Have faith. Did not create this to just walk away because X Y Z says what he feels like”, he said in another tweet.
Modi, who has been in the eye of a storm after Income Tax raids on IPL and its franchises’ offices allegedly revealed financial irregularities, also accused the media for putting out unverified stories about his dealings.
“Media putting stories without verification goes to show how Media can misuse their power. Don’t get influenced by all these baseless stories. Truth will prevail soon. Trial by media and no chance to present the facts is like the Wild West. Wait and the facts will be delivered,” he added.
Modi’s tweets show that he is in no mood to go down without a fight and has set the stage for a bitter showdown with the BCCI bosses who today rejected his emotional plea to defer the governing council meeting by five days.
Attempts by Sharad Pawar to persuade Modi to step down and not to precipitate matters appeared to have failed.
“He (Modi) may say anything. A decision will be taken on April 26 at the Governing Council meeting,” Manohar told waiting reporters after the meeting.
The action unfolded early in the morning with Mallya meeting union minister and former BCCI President Sharad Pawar at his residence.
Although it is not known what was discussed, Mallya threw his weight behind Modi.
“I think Modi must be given some opportunity at some point of time to explain himself. This whole controversy has become an unnecessary toofan. Yes, there may be some questions about the way in which IPL runs. Clearly some governing council members may not be happy. Let all that be properly investigated,” he said.
There were unconfirmed reports that Pawar wanted the BCCI to give an honourable exit to Modi, whom he had backed when the scandal initially broke out. But no BCCI official confirmed such a development.