Nimit Agarwal
(nimit.agarwal@gmail.com)

TRYST WITH CRICKET

Cricket never had it so good. The Modi cocktail of cricket, glamour and money got global attention. From a mere game ‘played by 11 players against 11 at 11’ cricket became a major investment avenue. Vijay Mallyas and Mukesh Ambanis are seen with Shah Rukh Khans and Preity Zintas, who were rubbing shoulders with Suchin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid. IPL became the business model for Harvard and Wharton to study. All because of an Indian business czar called Lalit Modi.

The unmaking of Modi was that he rose spectacularly and instantaneously, so to speak. It is the law of nature that anybody who rises fast must fall, too, fast. It is a corollary of the law of gravitation which Newton forgot to add. In his short stint, Modi did make money – not just money but formidable enemies also. Perhaps too many powerful ones to manage in one life. At the moment, he is on his way to entry in the Guinness Book of World Records as one who sent the longest reply to a show-cause notice.

Modi comes from a business family that owns Modi Enterprises, a $1.5-billion chain of companies; and he is also on the board of Godfrey Philips, India's most successful tobacco company. His private life is as colourful as his public life. He married Minal, who was nine years his senior and already married with a daughter. He met her while studying in the US, visited London where she was living with her family, and got a divorce against his family’s disapproval. He has two children, Ruchir and Aliya, from Minal.

Modi’s tryst with cricket has all the making of a Shakespearean drama – ambition, jealousy, rivalry, hubris. It was with Vasundhara Raje’s help that he made his debut as president of the Rajasthan Cricket Association that gave Modi a seat on BCCI. In a power struggle that saw Sharad Pawar ousting Jagmohan Dalmiya in 2005, Modi batted for the former. And Modi, the brash upstart, became one of the youngest men to be vice-president of the BCCI. For his outspokenness – a euphemism for criticizing the powers that be – he was booted out of the Himachal Cricket Association by chief minister Dhumbar, who appointed his own son as president. But that was before he joined Rajasthan cricket.

Whether Modi stages a comeback or fades out of cricket, his impact on BCCI is indelible. The Modi episode cost the flamboyant Shashi Tharoor his job and Praful Patel his reputation. Modi is only the tip of an iceberg, the real villains are hiding in the BCCI and plotting against him. Whether Modi will be able to fix his detractors, or they will be able to fix him with charges of his money connection with arms lobby in the Gulf, is a game watched with equal interest as IPL cricket. Anyhow, we wish him good luck.