IPL revenues will improve cricket infrastructure: Modi

IPL Chairman Lalit Modi said revenues from T20 league will improve cricketing infrastructure in preparation of 2011 WC.

Indian Premier League Chairman Lalit Modi says the revenues from the Twenty20 League will be used by the Cricket Board to improve the game’s infrastructure on a priority basis ahead of the 2011 World Cup to be held in the sub-continent.

“The revenues of the DLF Indian Premier League would go a long way in vastly improving the on-ground cricketing infrastructure and stadia within the country in preparation of the 2011 World Cup,” he said in an exclusive interview.

“The BCCI has always maintained that refurbishment of all of our cricketing infrastructure and stadia prior to the 2011 World Cup is top-priority and would be given the highest level of importance so that we can stage a truly unique World Cup -one that the cricketing world has never seen,” he explained.

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Maintaining that the BCCI was a non-profit organization and all money that is raised are “redeployed into improving the level of cricket in India”, Modi pointed out that presently the country has more cricketers from rural and tier II cities playing for “the men in blue” than ever before.

“Why is that? It is due to the efforts of the BCCI’s talent grooming programme. Our cricketers today are privy to the best coaches, facilities and training methodologies to help them develop and hone their skills and the results are there for all to see,” he said.

Modi, a Vice President of the BCCI, was responding to a query on why the Board, which gets tax exemption from the government, should not contribute towards social development through the tax kitty now that it’s making a huge amount of money.