Caught,Tharoor hits back at Modi

After a series of questions raised by Modi about the shareholders and the shareholding structure of Kochi franchisee on April 11,today,it was Tharoors turn to hit back. In a statement released on his web site,Tharoor alleged that Modi,in fact,has been batting for another city in a different state from the beginning and by raising questions about the Kochi franchisee,he is trying to discredit and disqualify the Kochi team in favour of the said city.

Two other members of the Kochi team also alleged that Modi was in favour of a team from Ahmedabad and after their consortium won the bid,the members were even offered incentives,such as players of their choice,and assistance in raising sponsorships,to shift their base to Ahmedabad.

His target is not Tharoor or any other shareholder of the consortium. Modi,in fact,is trying to get Ahmedabad on board by getting us disqualified, said one of the consortium members. Modi was unavailable for comment.

Meanwhile,some senior members of BCCI and some people close to the development said the fight between Tharoor and Modi is an offshoot of the ongoing tussle between two senior BCCI officials and Modi. These officials have been trying to check Modis growing clout in the IPL. While Modi wanted to favour a particular industrialist from Ahmedabad by awarding him the new rights,these officials put a spanner in his plans by getting the Kochi consortium on board, these sources said.

It may be recalled that while inviting the bids for the new team,the IPL management had put extremely stringent conditions,such as the bidder had to have a net worth of at least 1 billion and upon winning,they had to furnish a bank guarantee of 100 million,besides setting a very high base price of 225 million against 50 million for the original auction. The bids that were opened on March 7 had two strong contenders,the Mumbai-based Videocon group with a 320 million bid and the Adani Group that bid 315 million for Ahmedabad.

After inviting us as the winners,they informed us later that the whole process had been cancelled because of some technical glitches and new bids will be invited shortly, said Venugopal Dhoot,chairman,Videocon group. He also said that he had furnished the 100 million bank guarantee as sought by BCCI but it was later returned to him. Ruing that canceling the bids after having opened them was extremely unprofessional,he said: Initially,I thought of taking legal action against them but then I was advised against it by my legal advisors.

While inviting fresh bids,BCCI relaxed the aforesaid conditions at the behest of the two BCCI officials and on March 21,two new winners,the Sahara Group with a 370-million bid and the Kochi consortium with 333-million bid,were announced for Pune and Kochi,respectively.

By questioning the ownership of the Kochi franchisee,Modi has put Tharoor in a spot. Tharoor,who all along maintained,that he had no business interests in the Kochi team,has been under fire ever since the name of Sunanda Pushkar,reportedly his fiancée,came out in the open as one of the members of the consortium who have been given 19 shares in the reported 25 free equity owned by Rendezvous Sports World Private Ltd,the company that led the Kochi consortium.

In his statement today,he said: Contemptible efforts have been made to drag in matters of my personal life which I do not intend to dignify by commenting on them.

While admitting that he knows Pushkar well,he alleged: His Modis extraordinary breach of all propriety in publicly raising issues relating to the composition of the consortium and myself personally is clearly an attempt to discredit the team and create reasons to disqualify it so that the franchise can be awarded elsewhere.