Modi saab, what happened to your vion (vision)?

Lalit Kumar Modi has transformed Indian Cricket into a money-making machine. This machine would continue to make money as long as the home team wins, or atleast be competitive. That is not what we are witnessing in Sri Lanka since July 23, 2008. The disgraceful display of incompetence that the Indian Test Team has shown is beyond comprehension. It is not only the pathetic performance of our fast-aging players, it is the sheer stupidity of the selection board of BCCI. Either they are brain dead or are typical Indian Babus who are bribed to their eye balls. What else would justify such a selection? There are rumors that Sachin Tendulkar might join Bollywood. I would suggest he should find some role in his films for Rahul Dravid and Anil Kumble. Every time they screw up, their expressions are worth watching. I would also urge our patriotic big-wigs of Bollywood to find suitable roles for Harbhajan Singh, VVS Laxman and Zaheer Khan. Sourav Ganguly is not bad-looking either.

Lalit Modi, Vice President of BCCI (Board of Control for Cricket in India), was born on November 29, 1963 in New Delhi, India. He is the son of KK Modi (Krishan Kumar Modi), the eldest son of Late Rai Bahadur Gujarmal Modi (Founder of the Modi Group). Lalit Modi attended Duke University in North Carolina for a degree in management during 1980s, but had to depart in a haste in the wake of charges of drug abuse. He came back to India and worked for Estee Lauder. He soon started working for Godfrey Phillips, a Modi Enterprise. Lalit Modi’s forays into Indian cricket began with the RCA (Rajasthan Cricket Association). The Rungta Family ruled RCA as their own fiefdom and had a powerful grip over the BCCI. Modi, with the help of Punjab’s Inderjit Singh Bindra, managed to overthrow the Rungtas from the BCCI, via the courts. He emerged as a new power broker and it was here that one could see the personality of Lalit Modi. There was a new dawn over the BCCI horizon.

The next step came in late November, 2005 when anti-Dalmiya forces rallied around for what would turn out to be the most acrimonious BCCI board election in decades. Jagmohan Dalmiya (erstwhile President of BCCI) was defeated and Sharad Pawar (Union Agriculture Minister) was installed as the new President of the Board of Control for cricket in India and Lalit Modi emerged, grinning triumphantly, as one of the youngest-ever BCCI vice-presidents. Since then, BCCI has emerged as the richest administrative body in the Indian sports arena and is in the process of overtaking England’s Cricket Board. BCCI was established in 1929.

Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI)

Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) was established in 1929. It is the central governing body for cricket in India. Technically, it is a private club and is not required to make it’s finances public. BCCI generally uses government-owned stadiums across the country at a nominal annual rent. Central Government’s minister for agriculture, Sharad Powar, is the current President of the board. Lalit Modi, the chairman and commissioner of Indian Premier League, is the vice president of BCCI. Niranjan Rasiklal Shah, a former opening batsman from Saurashtra, is the secretary of the cricket board. The BCCI is the richest cricket board in the world.

Cricket was introduced in India by the British in 1720s. The first cricket match in India was played between two teams of visiting sailors at a seaport in Kutch in 1725. The first Indians to play the game of cricket in India were the minority community of Parsis in Bombay. They founded the Orient Cricket Club in 1848, the first non-British cricket club in Bombay, India. In 1892, an annual cricket match was played between Parsis and the Europeans. Hindus entered the fray in 1907, what came to be known as a triangular cricket tournament. Muslims joined the game in 1912 in the Bombay Quadrangular. The four Palwankar brothers were the biggest Indian cricket stars.