IPL council unearths a new scandal

There seems to be no end to scandals in the Indian Premier League. The Board of Control for Cricket in India is believed to have unearthed new financial irregularities in IPL III accounts.

According to sources in the BCCI, the irregularities came to the fore when the IPL’s Governing Council met here on Monday to go through the accounts of the third edition of the T20 league held in March-April with now suspended Lalit Modi as chairman.

“An amount of Rs76.22 crore through sale of hospitality tickets for the final (on April 25), the third place tie (held on April 24) and the two semifinals (all held in Mumbai) is unaccounted for,” BCCI sources, who did not want to be named, said here.

“Hospitality ticket for the final cost Rs1 lakh, it was priced at Rs80,000 for the third place tie and cost Rs50,000 for the two semifinals. There is no account for these and there is no signed contract,” one agency report said.

“Also only 30,000 tickets for the final have been accounted for while the stadium (DY Patil Stadium) was packed to capacity as everyone had seen and it can hold 52,000 people. Over 20,000 tickets are unaccounted for,” they said.

The final was held between eventual champions Chennai Super Kings, led by Mahendra Singh Dhoni, and Sachin Tendulkar-captained Mumbai Indians.

The sources also revealed that there appeared to be irregularities in another deal wrapped up by Modi. The Delhi-based company which got the deal (for supply of machines to screen spectators’ bags at the match venues) existed only on paper and the invoice for a much lesser amount than shown in the accounts was sent to the Board by another Bangalore firm.

Seven members, including chairman Chirayu Amin and Arun Jaitley, did not attend the meeting. Amin and Jaitley are conducting hearing Lalit Modi case in New Delhi along with Jyotiraditya Scindia. Other absentees were ex-cricketers Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi, Sunil Gavaskar and Ravi Shastri, along with Farooq Abdullah and I S Bindra.
(With agency inputs)