25 March 2024 last updated at 19:12 GMT
 
LKM Blogs
MODI'S LATEST STATEMENT ON CAIRNS ISSUE

I have issued proceedings in the High Court of Justice in London to set aside the 2012 Chris Cairns libel judgment on the ground of fraud, and to seek the return of all of the damages and costs which I paid following that judgement of over £2.4m. In light of the CPS case against Chris Cairns and Andrew Fitch-Holland, and the injunction which remains in place following the 2012 judgment, I will not be making any further comments until it is appropriate for me to do so.


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INDIAN CRICKET AWAITS CORRUPTION-FREE-2015

“Human progress is neither automatic nor inevitable... Every step towards the goal of justice requires sacrifice, suffering, and struggle; the tireless exertions and passionate concern of dedicated individuals.”

-Martin Luther King, Jr., American rights activist*

I fully believe in this gem by Martin Luther King Jr.

Indian cricket needed to be cleansed after all the happenings in the Indian Premier League (IPL) in the last three years. We are still not there. But as the South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu said: "Hope is being able to see that there is light despite all the darkness."

The past 12 months have seen many efforts for ending corruption in the IPL. This is not a time for blame game. I believe it is in the interest of everybody that the case is slowly, but steadily reaching a logical conclusion.

Srinivasan and his coterie of India Cements employees were kept away from the office. We had Sunil Gavaskar being named as interim president during the IPL and Shivlal Yadav for non-IPL affairs. Srinivasan has been hauled over the coals for the most palpable “conflict of interest” case in world sport. 

But the specter of Srinivasan was always looming large. Gavaskar and Yadav were in office but never in power. That was cemented as always in the hands of Srinivasan. Sundar Raman – his Man Friday continued to pull the strings from Chennai. To continue in office after the highest court in the country terms your greed for power as “nauseating” is shameful. 

When the Justice Mudgal panel report was finally made public, it became clear that our worst fears had come true. As Lord Gautam Buddha once said: "Three things cannot be long hidden - the sun, the moon, and the truth."

A series of observations by the Honourable Supreme Court about the state of cricket's administration in India pointed towards change. Of course it would have shaken most. But Srinivasan was still delusional.

The Srinivasan camp has made clumsy attempts to neither let go off the BCCI presidency, the power, and the IPL franchise of Chennai Super Kings. It is clear. Srinivasan looks at this as a case of "heads you lose, tails I win". They have done everything that suggests that power at any cost is the sole aim of their supreme leader.

I also pointed out earlier this year about the unholy trinity led by Srinivasan, the ECB, and Cricket Australia and their evil intent to shrink the sport to a three-nation contest. With clinical precision, Srinivasan manipulated the ICC's revenue distribution model, administrative structures and the Future Tours Programme (FTP), and questioned the relevance of Test rankings by reinstating the Champions Trophy over the World Test Championship.

Srinivasan feigns love for the sport in various interviews he’s cherry picked to show that he’s walking the talk. How then did he forget the basic fundamentals of sport: provide level playing fields, give the underdog a chance even if it is a slim one, and promote fair play? Without these basic principles and tenets, I think cricket and indeed any sport would be devoured of all its dignity and honour. It would simply be reduced to the level of excessive financial greed. What then is the fundamental point of a sport?

Sadly, the sport is losing in the bigger bargain. Sponsors are not exactly lining up outside the Wankhede Stadium; the money, which provides strength to Indian cricket at world forum, will slowly dry up.

We must look at this battle not from the point of view of a win for a camp over the other. This is about standing up for truth, justice, and ensuring that cricket reaches its pre-eminent spot in the country. We cannot have fans walking in and out of stadiums with lingering doubts in their minds. The faith of the cricket fan is evaporating faster than an open can of turpentine.

Srinivasan is clutching at straws to extricate himself. At the other end of the spectrum, we have worked tirelessly through dedicated individuals to free cricket from corruption. Obviously we have encountered difficulties along the way. The Rajasthan Cricket Association (RCA) election was a prime example of how the year can be best described for my team. We won fair and square and I got elected president, putting in place systems.

But the Srinivasan camp did not `approve' of it, despite the Supreme Court being the observer in the RCA elections. The future of scores of promising cricketers in Rajasthan was put at stake, a coup was attempted, but all that did not deter us. In the end, we have put the sport of cricket above everything else in Rajasthan.*

I have decided to fight corruption in cricket and will do whatever it takes and support anyone who helps me in this endeavor. I think it takes the courage of a dreamer to reach as far as you can. "A dreamer is one who can only find his way by moonlight, and his punishment is that he sees the dawn before the rest of the world," said the great Oscar Wilde.

Let’s hope the new year brings that light at the end of the dark tunnel that we are in. Here’s wishing love and happiness to all cricket fans in 2015! 

 

Follow my thoughts on the BCCI crisis through my Twitter account @lalitkmodi
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