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lalit modi
The 2010 IPL
By Will Sunday, last week, 4 Comments »
You up for it, then? Excited or unbothered? I’m at 60% at the moment, which is surprisingly high – my interest probably peaked at 6% last year – though I’m mainly interested in seeing how successful the YouTube venture goes.
I don’t know why I’m telling you all this. Anyway, I want to garner your reaction to this year’s Modi Party, so wibble away to your hearts’ content.
4 Comments »People of cricket: I am your leader
By Will 1 month ago, 4 Comments »
Lalit Modi: two words or four syllables which can invoke either nauseousness or sycophancy. He has abrasively dictated his terms on the game, and upon the ICC, so it’s perfectly understandable that he has courted bitter-sweet reactions of controversy and adoration. I quite admire him nowadays. He’s seized an opportunity like no one at the ECB could do, and though I’m uncomfortable with the power he has now obtained, some other canny sod would’ve done the same soon enough.
However, I made the mistake of subscribing to his Twitter feed the other day, and it’s been a fascinating – if at times uncomfortable – insight into his character. There are replies, snippets of gossip and general newsy things, but he seems to be using Twitter as a vehicle for teaching the world How To Be A Sports Administrator. Fascinating for some, perhaps. For the rest of us, it’s like listening to an unelected prime minister outline his visions for the game – and there’s nothing we can do to stop him.
Wait a minute. Have you ever seen Lalit Modi and Gordon Br…no. Forget it. Anyway, here’s what Lalit K Modi has been saying on Twitter an hour ago.
Its not a person who can revive a sport. It is fans like you who can. If people watch the game – money will come automatically. Watch hockey
If you all start tuning into any sports it will thrive. So fans play the most important role in survival of any sports.That’s the first step
Sports globally is supported by viewership and attendance. Once we get that sponsors will come. Off course good administration is needed.
Players in any sport need to be supported first as its there hard work and skill and endurance that makes a good team.
If players interest is not looked after – that sport can never thrive. Players need to believe there is a future for them to excel.
He’s been watching the hockey today, when India beat Mas 3-1 to lift the Azlan Shah Cup. And there was me wondering which sport he was next training his eye on…
4 Comments »Modi lures football to take over the world
By Will 1 month ago, 5 Comments »
Lalit Modi has risen from seemingly nowhere. Unlike us sleepy Englishmen, with our excellent ideas but reluctance to ever commercialise them – or, perhaps more fairly, our endemic resistance to change – Modi’s timing was spot on. He saw Twenty20 as the adrenaline kick cricket needed, a drug for the fans and moreover for television executives to crave. The ICC, like the ECB, were caught off guard yet Modi spotted his chance and got the international board on side, brushing off the Indian Cricket League – and doubtless others – with a disdainful arrogance not readily afforded to someone who had, apparently, appeared from nowhere. Remarkably, he calls the shots.
That, ladies and gents, is the man we are dealing with. There is a distasteful arrogance to the way in which he announces some of his latest ventures and his name does not attract great affection or joy, rather a looming fear. But that’s only because the rest of the world is envious, shaking their heads disbelievingly at the ease with which he has transformed the game, occasionally showing an insouciance of self belief in his vision not seen since Steve Jobs first took to the stage wearing loose-fitting jeans and grubby trainers. Modi knows he’s nailed it. The IPL is his iPhone, a game-changing device applauded by the world.
The rest of the sport and her clubs are fawning for his attention, and not just cricket teams. Modi might havs snared football into the bargain now, too:
“There is a football club, a very famous football club in the UK, very interested in bidding,” Modi said. “[They are] probably one of the most famous football clubs – that’s all I can say. Probably top three. They are interested in taking a stake.”
Responding to speculation in the Indian media, Modi later said on his Twitter page that the club in mention was not Chelsea. A report in the Sun named Manchester City as the team looking at buying a franchise although the club told Cricinfo they were not involved.
The IPL will include two more teams from the 2011 season and will auction the franchise rights at a base price of $225 million ahead of the third season, which starts in India on March 12, and will invite potential investors this week. That figure – double of what the most expensive franchise was sold for in 2008 and more than four times the base price in that first auction – is, in an uncertain market, a sign of the league’s confidence in itself and the Twenty20 format.
According to Modi, the MCC would be a value addition to the IPL and open up the possibility of taking the bandwagon overseas to Lord’s. “I have talked [to MCC] last night and they are quite interested,” he said.
When will he have his iPad moment?
5 Comments »Indian Premier League live on Youtube
By Will 2 months ago, 3 Comments »
This caught everyone by surprise. The IPL will be streamed live on YouTube, a feat which could revolutionise the way sport is broadcast and consumed. If that’s too bold a statement, it will certainly have TV executives shifting uncomfortably in their leather-upholstered swivel chairs. Google are game-changers, and so is Lalit Modi – like him or loath him – so it’s a fascinating partnership. As a fan, I am over the moon and excited by the impact it could have on TV’s monopoly. This could open up the industry, certainly for live sporting events.
The only question which remains is whether they’ll run pre-roll ads or rely on Google Adsense.
3 Comments »What do we make of the IPL?
By Will last year, at the end of April, 3 Comments »
So, we’re about a week into IPL 2. What do you think?
I saw a couple of matches on TV in South Africa and, as expected, was struck by the brilliance of the concept and the ugliness of its commercialism. On the one hand, I was watching Shane Warne continue to defy age and physics with unplayable legbreaks. The same can be said of Anil Kumble. Kevin Pietersen was captaining a side containing Dale Steyn against an Indian team led by Warne. The whole idea is mad as a box of frogs.
It’s especially bonkers this year because it’s being held in another country. That very factor alone ought to help the IPL; the stadiums in South Africa are all magnificent from what I’ve learned, and although some cities are considered dangerous, there is less of a terrorist threat than Asia.
The Indian Premier League in South Africa. It just sounds so wrong, so incongruous and unlikely, doesn’t it? To see some old-timers still prove their worth is undoubtedly thrilling, yet why do I not give a flying toss about it all? Perhaps because I refuse to pay the absurdly overpriced Setanta fee (I’m in the UK now). Perhaps I abhor the amount of money. Maybe it’s that, and the combination of the format.
Or maybe it’s just Lalit Modi ingratiating himself with the South African president, Kgalema Motlanthe, who looked about as interested in proceedings as my mum. Modi’s modus operandi. Yes, I’m afraid that’s the other nail in the IPL coffin for me.
Anyway. What’s your name, where do you come from and do you like the IPL?
3 Comments »Stanford close to luring ECB
By Will 2 years ago, at the end of April, 59 Comments »
Allen Stanford and Lalit Modi. Two entirely different characters, both from opposite ends of the world – geographically and, arguably, morally – but both with a shared love of money and cricket. Why do I worry less about the Wild West cowboy, and more about Modi’s modus operandi?
Perhaps it’s because he’s American and has no historical connection to a cricket board. Maybe it’s because he appears to have no dirty agenda to the politics of the sport: he’s seemingly happy to pile money into the flayling West Indies cricket, and anyone else who wants to join in the fun is more than welcome. This sounds naive – of course, billionaires crave and adore money: it is their driving force – but his come-follow-me attitude is refreshing and progressive, which cannot be said of Modi. Modi’s business is power and politics; the IPL has already made him millions, but it is a vehicule to global dominance. We’ve seen this season how the ECB have been tied up in knots banning (and subsequently unbanning) various players who represented the Indian Cricket League – the antichrist to the sanctioned IPL – which demonstrates just how much power the BCCI wields.
Anyway, I digress. I like Mr Stanford and am quite excited by what he could do to counter Modi’s unquenchable thirst for dominance. He has met with the ECB – significantly, the president of the West Indies Cricket Board, Dr Julian Hunte, was also present – to finalise plans for an England v West Indies All Stars XI later this year (and possibly running over five years). The matches themselves aren’t too significant, but it could signal the start of a business relationship which expands far beyond any of our imaginings. Stanford’s 20/20 in the Caribbean was a rollicking success – some say he should be in charge of ICC’s World Cups – so it’ll be fascinating to see what he and England come up with.
59 Comments »Cricinfo banned from IPL
By Will 2 years ago, mid-April, 5 Comments »
I’ve been in Southampton covering Hampshire’s first game of the season against the champions, Sussex, so have a few things to get off my chest or note down here. Yes, The Rose Bowl – comfortably England’s most characterless cricket ground is a world away from the razamatazz of the Indian Premier League. It won’t have escaped your notice that we, Cricinfo, are effectively banned from the IPL. That is, the organisers won’t give us accreditation so none of our staff are permitted entry (I believe), and nor are we allowed to use any of the photos that come from the agencies (some of whom are boycotting the event).
This is baloney, and a ridiculous own goal by Lalit Modi that smacks of arrogance and a clueless understanding of what the public want and how they consume their cricket news. Cricinfo has upwards of 10 million users, a large portion of whom – for an event of this scale – would be logged in to follow our IPL scorecards. Cut Cricinfo out, and the IPL shoot themselves in the foot.
It won’t actually affect how we operate – we are still doing ball-by-ball commentary, whose traffic must have been extraordinary for tonight’s crazy opening one-dayer – as Cricinfo’s editor, Sambit Bal, explains:
Sambit Bal, the editor of Cricinfo, described the restrictions as discriminatory and unjust. “We are a legitimate cricket media organisation with unmatched global credibility and we are asking no special favours,” he said. “We cover cricket with journalistic rigour and integrity. We are being denied our basic rights to cover a cricket event in a professional manner.”
However, Bal said Cricinfo’s editorial commitment to the tournament would not be affected. “Boycotting the IPL is not an option for us. Our commitment to cover cricket is absolute, as is our obligation to the reader. We are not blind to the significance of the IPL, which could be a seminal event in cricket. We will try to cover every game with the same rigour and depth expected of us.”
5 Comments »
English Premier League gathers momentum
By Will 2 years ago, mid-April, 10 Comments »
The news that Allen Stanford, the Wild West’s Lalit Modi, is to meet the ECB next week offers a delicious opportunity to ponder what the England board has up its sleeve. And still the ECB continue to maintain, with absolutely no conviction, that they “don’t want a knee-jerk reaction to the IPL”. That is exactly what they want, and arguably need. There’s a sense the ECB are spitting nails that another country – god forbid India! – have stolen their Twenty20 and created a monster from it. They want that monster, their beast, back.
So they’re pondering the English Premier League (EPL), a smaller sibling India’s giant tournament, to take advantage of England’s season to attract international stars. It’ll probably take place in June and July next year as no other country has any international commitments to conflict. And with Stanford potentially coming on board – it’s absolutely unclear what, if any, the Texan’s role might be – the prospect of millions of dollars come into the equation.
Stanford’s 20/20, the Caribbean tournament which he piled millions of his own money into, has been a runaway success with cricket at its core. There are even some who wish Stanford would take charge of ICC’s World Cup every four years; he does things loud, in a very American way, but rather like Mr Getty has a fondness for cricket and wants to keep the sport’s traditions at the centre. Also like Getty and Modi, he knows a good deal when he spots one.
In the IPL, team names have been singularly uninspiring. The Mumbai Indians, the Deccan Chargers, the Bangalore Royal Challengers. Boring. What do you make of England’s plans, and what teams might be created?
10 Comments »Now come on, chaps. Behave
By Will 2 years ago, at the start of April, No Comments; be the first!
I had to raise a smile when the MCC* made a statement today to say that Lalit Modi, the commissioner and chairman of the Indian Premier League, had agreed to abide by the MCC’s Spirit of Cricket. It was endearingly headmasterly; young Lalit, you and your tournament frighten us witless. By all means take over the world, but please do so in an orderly manner.
* (yes, it’s just “MCC”, but I prefer “the MCC”)
No Comments »