IPL Must be BANNED ??
FUCK All BIG SHOT Basteds ?
IPL money-laundering scandal threatens Indian government ???
Lalit Modi, IPL's chief executive, is expected to be asked to resign on Monday. Photograph: Gianluigi Guercia/AFP
A cricketing scandal in India looked set to turn into a full-blown political crisis today, as senior opposition political figures sought to exploit what they say is ministers' "misuse of power" before a crucial parliamentary vote next week. The main opposition party, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), called on two government ministers to resign following allegations of conflicts of interest and demanded an independent parliamentary investigation. The parliamentary session was briefly suspended amid rowdy scenes.
The sporting scandal, which revolves around alleged tax evasion, possible betting and misuse of political influence in the multibillion pound Indian Premier League (IPL), has already claimed one minister who was forced to give up his post when it became known that a close female friend had a stake in a newly-created team. "A lot of people, including people in the government, are neck deep in this scam. [The] IPL has turned out to be a huge scam. I think the worst ever, the biggest ever in this country," said Yashwant Sinha, a BJP member of parliament.
Sharad Yadav, from a smaller opposition party, called the IPL a "den of thieves". Lalit Modi, the flamboyant chief executive of the IPL, was questioned for several hours by investigators from tax and foreign exchange authorities today. Modi denies all wrongdoing and has said he is happy to co-operate with any inquiries. However, the position of the controversial businessman and sports administrator, who is credited with creating a tournament now estimated to be worth more than £2.6bn, is increasingly fragile. Modi, 46, is expected to be told to resign at a meeting of Indian cricketing authorities on Monday.
An Indian news magazine today claimed that phone conversations between Modi and Sharad Pawar, the agriculture minister and Modi's main protector and sponsor, had been tapped by intelligence agents on the orders of the government.
Outlook said that the operation was one of many carried out in recent years against senior politicians, a charge that sparked immediate outrage from politicians and journalists. The offices of a series of IPL teams, many of which are owned by Bollywood stars and corporate tycoons, have been raided by tax authorities in recent days, leading commentators to compare the scandal with the last such affair in Indian cricket: the match-fixing scandal of 2000. Pawar is among those targeted by the opposition. A former president of the Board of Control for Cricket in India and a key political ally of the ruling Congress party, he is accused of improperly using his office to influence bids for IPL contracts, a charge he denies.
A second minister is accused of diverting a passenger plane from the national carrier Air India for use by IPL players.
India has been transfixed by the affair, which has dominated headlines all week and put the government of Manmohan Singh on the defensive, days ahead of a parliamentary confidence motion over high fuel prices. Though the coalition government, elected last year, is expected by analysts to survive as few politicians currently want to see a new election, Singh has looked out of touch.
Harish Khare, political editor of The Hindu newspaper said that any damage the scandal could cause to the government was limited.
"The IPL is a private enterprise that is having some doubtful moments. The government still have the numbers [in parliament]," Khare said.
The IPL is now coming to the end of its third season and remains immensely popular. An astonishing spectacle with three-hour, Twenty20 (20-over) games featuring world-class players paid hundreds of thousands of dollars and cheerleaders paid considerably less. It has created a huge fanbase that cuts across caste, class and culture.
Sachin Tendulkar, the international cricketing star and captain of IPL team the Mumbai Indians, described recent events as "rough patches". "Life is not always a smooth journey ... I am sure cricket will overcome all those hurdles," he told an Indian television channel.
54 parties, 270 hours of partying and close to 1,29,600 bottles of beer consumed.
The past two months have been one big party as the third season of the Indian Premier League took the country by storm. Models, cricketers and celebrities burnt the floor till 4 am every day. And the ongoing political controversy is not going to stop the party.
An organiser, who asked not to be named, told HT City, "The parties will happen, of course, there has been no problem with the parties." This puts paid to talk that the income tax scrutiny has meant a cancellation of parties, including the much awaited IPL Awards night to be hosted by filmmaker Karan Johar and superstar Shah Rukh Khan.
"What have cricket and the players' achievements on the field got to do with this controversy? We are trying to award the achievements of the players. The Awards ceremony will happen tonight," said Mohomed Morani, of Cineyug, the event organisers. Johar too, at a recent press conference, confirmed the news, saying, "I will be hosting the awards."
As the parties go on, HT City takes a closer look at the number game of the party scene. "There were about 500 people at every party and close to 15 security personnel. On nights when Shah Rukh Khan, Preity Zinta or Shilpa Shetty were in attendance of course, it was much more," says Mehr Rampal, the organiser of the post-IPL fashion parties.
"At the post-IPL fashion show 16 models showcased 32 garments every night," says Nayanika Chatterjee, who choreographed the shows. Accordingly, over 1,728 garments by 58 designers were showcased. According to sources there were close to eight varieties of dishes at each party and over all close 1,29,600 bottles of beer and 27,000 bottles of whiskey were consumed; 9,450 songs played at post match parties 27,000 bottles of whisky consumed, 432 dishes served in the buffet spreads, 1,728 garments displayed at 54 fashion galas 39.7444 kms covered by models on the ramp and 810 security personnel on duty.
Widened IPL Probe takes
tax officials to Sahara offices ??
The Income Tax Department may seek help of police and intelligence agencies to nail down some Gujarat-based bookies, allegedly involved in betting on cricket matches of the Indian Premier League (IPL), a source close to the development said.
"An investigation is already on to track down prominent bookies closely associated with the IPL betting syndicate," an I-T source told PTI on Monday.
"If needed, we will seek the assistance of the Mumbai Police and other intelligence agencies to find them. So far, however, no official communication has been made in this regard," he said.
The sum involved in betting is believed to be running into thousands of crores and much of this money is understood to be coming in from the Saurashtra and Kutch regions of Gujarat, the source said.
"We are following all the leads as these bookies will not have any records of transactions and they mostly deal through the Internet or telephone. We are trying to assess how much money has come from abroad, especially from Dubai," he said.
Amid search operations at the Sahara group offices in Lucknow on Thursday, tax officials probing the financial dealings of the Kolkata franchise of the Indian Premier League (IPL) claimed “incriminating evidence” of irregularities.
Sleuths of the tax administration also questioned once again IPL Commissioner Lalit Modi over alleged irregularities in awarding the broadcasting rights and media rights for the cricketing extravaganza, officials said.
The search at premises of the Sahara group, the franchise for Pune that has its main office in Lucknow, came a day after similar operations across eight cities, covering the IPL, most of its franchises and three event-management and broadcast firms.
Led by industrialist Subroto Roy, the Sahara group — also the official sponsor of the Indian cricket team — had won the franchise for Pune at the latest auction for $370 million.
“While we purchased the franchisee for the Pune team for Rs.1,702 crore, our operations will actually begin only with IPL Season-IV in 2011,” Sahara group spokesperson Abhijit Sarkar told reporters in the Uttar Pradesh capital.
“It is wrong to describe the operation as a raid — this is a survey,” he said.
In Kolkata, the probe by the sleuths of the Directorate of Income Tax Investigation was on the legality of money transfers from tax havens like Mauritius to buy the franchise and the players through auctions.
“We’ve found incriminating evidence,” Indian Revenue Service Deputy Director Akhilendu Jadhav said in Kolkata, after the search operations at the offices of the Bengal Cricket Association and Shah Rukh Khan’s Kolkata Knight Riders.
“We needed to have a look at certain transactions and we have found whatever we were looking for,” Mr. Jadhav told reporters in the West Bengal capital in the early hours of Friday.
In Mumbai, meanwhile, Mr. Modi was questioned for the second time in two days over various issues, including the process involved in awarding the television broadcasting rights and the media contracts to parties.
The 45-minute enquiry was done a day after a team of 50 officials swooped on the offices of Multi Screen Media, World Sports Group and Pat Magnarella Management in Bandra, Khar and Malad suburbs of northwest Mumbai.
Earlier called Sony Entertainment TV, Multi Screen Media has the telecast rights for the IPL T20 cricketing extravaganza for 10 years from 2008 while World Sports Group acquired the global media rights for 10 years for over $1.5 billion.
Pat Magnarella Management is a full-service management, branding and marketing services company, which in the past specialised in the music business and later made a foray into sports as well, officials said.
Thursday also saw the president of the country’s apex cricket board categorically stating that the meeting of the IPL’s governing council will go ahead April 26 as scheduled in spite of questions raised by Mr. Modi.
“Under the board constitution, the secretary is the convenor of all meetings. Even today I don’t convene a meeting, being the board president,” Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) president Shashank Manohar said at the headquarters of the board here.
The meeting was convened by BCCI secretary N. Srinivasan in the wake of charges of financial irregularities by IPL and its franchises and a breach of confidentiality by Mr. Modi’s selective leaks.
