Newsmaker - Lalit Modi
Modi, a scion of the Modi Group, shot to fame in 2005 when he ousted the entrenched Rungta family from the Rajasthan Cricket Association, which had been its fiefdom for decades. He followed this up later the same year by playing a leading role in helping Sharad Pawar defeat Jagmohan Dalmiya loyalist Ranbir Singh Mahendra in the election for the position of BCCI President. He himself was elected Vice President of the Board and was later appointed Chairman of its marketing committee. It was here that he really came into his own. Within months, he sold the television rights for all matches hosted by BCCI (till 2010) to Nimbus for a (till then) unheard of $612 million (Rs 2,448 crore then). And, in his bid to make Team India “the world’s most-sponsored team” , he sold the shirt rights to Nike for an estimated Rs 200 crore (for five years). That is reportedly more than what leading football teams like Arsenal and Chelsea get for similar deals.
While his marketing coups and brash manner have won him fans in India, his habit of standing up to the former colonial powers who ruled the ICC till recently have resulted in a low-intensity running feud with the powers that be in the world body. But that has never bothered him. And now that IPL has emerged as the cricket world’s most lucrative tournament, the ICC will have little choice but to deal more closely with the man the British and Australian media dubs its Enemy #1.
