Parivar League

K Shriniwas Rao

Posted online: Sunday, May 11, 2008 at 0015 hrs IST

New Delhi, May 10
When Commissioner Lalit Modi metaphorically describes the Indian Premier League as a "family", he may not be too far off the mark.

Four of the eight teams in the ongoing Twenty20 tournament are owned or managed by individuals with links either with the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) or with Modi himself.

Consider the following:

•Suresh Chellaram, one of the owners of the Rajasthan Royals through the consortium Emerging Media, is Modi's brother-in-law. "Of course, Suresh Chellaram is Lalit Modi's brother-in-law but that doesn't mean anything," BCCI secretary Niranjan Shah said, "there is no conflict of interest." The other partners are Lachlan Murdoch and Manoj Badale, who runs the Cricket Star academy in Jaipur. Modi is also president of the Rajasthan Cricket Association (RCA) and the RCA's Future Cricket Academy, which has tied up with Emerging Media to launch Cricket Star T20, a televised nationwide talent hunt, of which former India coach Greg Chappell is also a part.

• One of the owners of Kings XI Punjab is Mohit Burman of the Dabur family. His brother Gaurav, who is based in UK, is Modi's step son-in-law. When contacted, Mohit Burman said: "It's not just me alone, there are three other investors and naturally they won't be putting their money because I am related. The IPL is a good business opportunity and the relationship with Modi is a mere coincidence."

When asked about this, Modi, who is also head of BCCI's marketing committee, said: "So what if Mohit Burman's brother is related to me? He is not a part of the IPL."

• The Kings XI Punjab team's family links with the IPL go further. The team's general manager Amar Bindra is the son of I S Bindra, who is slated to take over as principal advisor to the International Cricket Council (ICC). I S Bindra is a senior BCCI official and a member of the IPL's all-powerful governing council.

"Certainly, the presence of my father has helped me a lot in my endeavour," Amar Bindra told The Sunday Express. "In a way, it's been easy with him around. I'm able to execute my work better. His cricket and management expertise are helping me a lot."

• Bangalore team Royal Challengers is owned by Vijay Mallya, who is also the vice-president of the Karnataka State Cricket Association (KSCA) and a member of BCCI's marketing committee. Brijesh Patel, who was appointed CEO of the Royal Challengers after commentator Charu Sharma was sacked, is also KSCA Secretary. Despite several attempts to contact Mallya and Patel, they were unavailable for comment.

• Chennai Super Kings is owned by India Cements, whose vice-chairman and managing director N Srinivasan is the treasurer of BCCI. The local revenue generated from IPL matches is split between the franchisees and the BCCI's state associations on an 80-20 ratio. When asked about the potential conflict of interest, Srinivasan said: "I don't own the team, I'm simply a shareholder. It is India Cements that owns the team. We bid for the team at $91 million and the second-highest bidder came in at $81 million. It was all in the open and so was the the player auction. I'm just helping India Cements where I can."

Given that the IPL franchisees were picked through a closed bidding process and the local revenue generated from IPL matches is split between the franchisees and the BCCI's state cricket associations, don't such links create a potential conflict of interest? Says BCCI Secretary Niranjan Shah: "The bidding process was completely clean. There's no question of any conflict of interest.