Modi offered $50 mn to pull out of IPL: Kochi team owner

Zeecric Bureau New Delhi/ Mumbai: Lalit Modi – Shashi Tharoor IPL row took yet another turn after one of IPL Kochi’s co-owners Shailendra Gaikwad alleged that Modi had offered Rendezvous Sports a huge sum to pull out of the bidding process that was held in March. “Modi had made various attempts to pressurise the consortium, which eventually won the bid for the Kochi team, to abandon it in favour of another city in a different state,” Gaikwad alleged. “Modi had offered USD 50 million to the consortium for pulling out of Indian Premier League’s bidding process. Lalit had done exceptional work but just because he wanted to favour other groups the whole controversy has erupted.” Also clearing the air on role of Sunanda Pushkar, Gaikwad said, “We approached her for supporting us in marketing and packaging the events and she has no other role in the whole episode.” “We have only offered her 5% stake in the Kochi IPL and she is an independent lady working on her own. There have been unfortunate attempts to malign her personal life and we feel sorry for that,” Gaikwad added. “Kochi will come out in open with every thing very soon, be it the name, the logo, the dresses and the captain and coach, everything,” Kochi’s spokesperson added. The winning bid of Rs 1,533.3 crore, from little known Rendezvous Sports, surprised the world’s cricket fraternity. This was Rs 84.3 crore higher than Adani Group’s bid and Rs 62 crore higher than that of Videocon Group, which were the hot favourites. Tharoor had supported the bid by the Rendezvous Sports consortium. However, Rendezvous also distanced itself from the political controversy stating that Shashi Tharoor had nothing to do with IPL Kochi franchise. “We approached Tharoor for helping us a mentor and as a local MP and his role were nothing more than that. He has no financial stake in Kochi franchise,” IPL spokesperson added. Earlier on Monday, twitted, that minister Tharoor had phoned him with a request not to get into the details of ownership of the Kochi team owners. Tharoor countered by saying that Modi was delaying approval of the franchisee despite all legal requirements being fulfilled. He also said Modi had submitted the consortium members to a barrage of questions, seeking excuses to delay the approval. It was only then that Tharoor intervened. Modi also put out details of the shareholding of the team, with the names of the companies and individuals on Twitter, which the consortium says is a clear breach of contract. Modi maintains it is public information. Meanwhile, one of the key shareholders of the consortium — Vivek Venugopal — has written to BCCI citing the confidentiality clause (19.1) in the Franchisee Agreement, which clearly states that both parties would treat its contents as being private and confidential, and should not be disclosed to anyone, except on certain conditions. Modi rubbishes charge “There is no chance that I made any offer to Kochi for pulling out,” Modi replied when contacted by a news channel. “Tharoor called me 13 past 12 and requested me to not disclose the names of Sunanda Pushkar who was a working lady,” Modi once again confirmed to an English news channel. "Are they mad. Who will offer them what they say Rs 200 crore. I will take legal recourse." Asked when he would initiate the legal action, he said "I am awaiting the clippings (in which Gaikwad had made allegation that Modi wanted their bid to be withdrawn). Once I have that, I will serve them legal notice... possibly tomorrow." Hours after Modi told a press conference that there was a question mark over the owners of the Kochi franchise, Gaikwad hit back at the IPL Commissioner saying that they were being deliberately made to go through a "tough time" because they refused the offer.