Lalit Modi: Quit cricket due to Dawood Ibrahim; ‘Rs 12 crore won’t last me a week’

Former Indian Premier League (IPL) Commissioner Lalit Modi has denied any wrongdoing and claimed that there is not a single case filed against him in India. He also made a shocking revelation that he had to quit cricket administration after being threatened by underworld don Dawood Ibrahim.

In an interview with news agency ANI, Modi, who is currently in London after leaving India in 2010, said he was “not running at all” from the Indian government.

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When asked about him being labelled “fugitive” Modi said, “I am not running at all... The Indian government has a long arm. You can't take on the government of India. And I don't intend to, and I don't want to. Not a single case against me has been registered. Why? If I have been so bad, and everybody says I am so bad, then prosecute me... There was a time when I did want to come back. But come back and do what? I don't need to prove anything to anybody... If there was something there, it would be out... Anything that I have done, or could have done, in the 17 years would have already been cleared. That is why there is no case against me.”

‘Dawood Ibrahim took 3 hits at me’

On being asked if he moved away from cricket because of Dawood, Modi said, “It is one of the biggest reasons.”

“He (Dawood) took three hits at me. Dawood himself said this. He missed three times. The reason was that I didn't look the other way when they wanted to fix matches. They offered me hundreds of millions of dollars to look the other way. If you look at the first three years, when I ran the IPL, there was no fixing. It wasn't liked by the mafia. But the main reason is that they believed that I would not be able to do IPL 2 (IPL 2009). Big bets were taken that IPL 2 will not happen... Bombay police recorded everything. Bombay police put me on Z security... There was a shootout outside my house in Bombay. There was a hit for me in Johannesburg when I was in Cape Town, which was picked up by the South African government,” Modi claimed.

Meeting ‘Baba’

Further, he stated that a ‘Baba’ met him and he spoke to Dawood. Modi also said his son was kidnapped in London.

“There was a hit on me in Montenegro, which was picked up at the Croatian border. My son was kidnapped in London. I have not told this story to anybody. I get a call at 3.30 in the morning. Buy a man you see around all the IPL matches. He's around politicians. He's a London-based guy... He's a fixer-dealer type of guy. He says you have to come and meet this guy Baba right now. I go to Baba's penthouse with back-to-back paintings of (MF) Hussain. He told me he wants an IPL team. I told him I have a Dawood problem. He said let me fix it in a minute. It was all orchestrated by them.

“He goes on his terrace, takes out his satellite phone and calls Dawood on the phone. I pissed in my pants. This happened in 2012. I don't know where Dawood was when I spoke to him on the phone. It's a recorded statement of mine. Then this Baba was seen everywhere. He's a man of the world.”

Modi also claimed that media mogul Rupert Murdoch became his “second biggest enemy” after Champions League T20 (CLT20) got cancelled following 26/11 terror attacks in Mumbai in 2008. Mordoch’s ESPN Star had bought the CLT20 broadcasting rights for 10 years for USD 100 million.

'Born with diamond spoon'

“The Pakistan (club) team had just landed, and I sent them right back. I knew they would be massacred then. That made my second biggest enemy, Rupert Murdoch, because I had sold the Champions League rights to him. I cancelled the Champions League. They lost a few hundred million dollars, but they still had to pay us because the minute the team touches down, the contract becomes viable. Rupert tried to make me cancel the contract. He said he would pay me hundreds of millions of dollars to cancel the contract. I could have taken that money, but I didn't. So I made another enemy,” Modi said in the interview.

Modi also dismissed allegations of financial fraud against him, stating he was “born with a diamond spoon” and said Rs 10 to 12 crore “won’t last for a week” for him.

“I told you I was born with a diamond spoon. When you accuse me of taking a few crore rupees, I make more than that a day in my life. I live in a beautiful home. I live the biggest life. I go everywhere. How do you think I do it? What is this thing? I took Rs 10 or Rs 12 crores of money... it won't last me a week,” he said.