Ex-IPL chief Modi planning breakaway cricket body

Former Indian Premier League (IPL) chief Lalit Modi has admitted his involvement in a plot to overthrow cricket’s establishment and create a new world governing body affiliated with the Olympic movement.

Modi, who had a non-bailable arrest warrant issued by police in India over allegations of money laundering, said a detailed plan had been years in the making.

“We’re talking about another cricketing system, there’s a blueprint out there which has my rubber stamp on it,” he told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

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“I have been involved in it. I say it for the first time, I’ve been involved in putting that [blue] print together.

“The plan that I have put together is a very detailed plan, it’s not a plan that’s come off the cuff, it’s been taking years and years and years in the making.”

Modi, who lives in London after fleeing India in 2010 when tax and financial crime authorities raided his premises, has long been critical of the International Cricket Council’s (ICC) governance structure and financial model.

He has voiced concern at the control exercised by India, England and Australia over the way world cricket is run and said he believed he could spearhead an alternative.

“We could take on the existing establishment, no problem. It requires a few billion dollars, I don’t think it would be a problem to get that … into action.”

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Modi was fired from his job as IPL commissioner in 2010. In 2013 he was banned for life from playing any role in cricket administration by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI).

Modi has not been charged and denies all the allegations.

“The plan conceives only of Test cricket and T20; it doesn’t take into account one-day at all.

“I think that is completely redundant in today’s day and age. I think it should just be T20 and Test matches that should be played.”