T20 Cricket News

The war of words between the BCCI and Lalit Modi continues unabated with the board president Shashank Manohar rejecting Modi's contention that the governing council meeting on April 26 would be invalid. Manohar also sought to clarify the status of N Srinivasan, the board secretary who also owns the Chennai franchise, which according to Modi was a conflict of interest.

"It is his view point, everybody is entitled to their viewpoint," Manohar told PTI, in response to Modi's contention that the meeting was unauthorised. "It is not a question of [whether or not Srinivasan is an] owner. He is not calling the meeting as an owner of a team, and in the board's constitution, the secretary is the convenor of all meetings."

Manohar stated there was no question of conflict of interest between Srinivasan's dual roles of a BCCI functionary and an IPL team owner. "Whether there is conflict of interest is not an issue because Srinivasan, when this issue had cropped up, had sought the permission of Sharad Pawar, who was the president of the board then [when the first round of IPL team auctions was conducted in 2008].

"Pawar had granted him permission to bid and it is not Mr. Srinivasan who was bidding, it was India Cements [Srinivasan's company that owns the Chennai franchise] which was bidding and after his bid was accepted, it was confirmed by the general body," Manohar said.

Manohar said that while BCCI was aware of the extent of Srinivasan's involvement in the IPL, the same was not true in Modi's case. "Srinivasan was a declared bidder. If Modi and his relatives had a share in any of the franchises, he ought to have declared it at the meeting. I was not a member of governing council then. He ought to have told everybody," Manohar said.

Modi, who was in Dubai when the BCCI called for the meeting, had asked for it to be pushed to May 1, in order to compile his documents and prepare his defence. There is intense speculation that the governing council is set to oust Modi in Monday's meeting, irrespective of whether he attends it.

News Source