Former Indian Premier League (IPL) commissioner Lalit Modi has made some startling revelations regarding underworld don Dawood Ibrahim and his control over the IPL.
Lalit Modi made the claim in an interview with news agency ANI where he said how he faced threats and intimidation on his life from Dawood and his crime syndicate which was one of the biggest reasons that forced him to quit cricket administration.
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Lalit also spoke about how his unwavering stance against match-fixing during the early years of the ISL directly collided with the multi-billion dollar underground betting empire controlled by D.C.
He said the syndicate runs an unimaginably vast ‘satta bazaar’ where the odds change with every ball.
“Dawood Ibrahim is a well-known bookmaker. He controlled the cricket book. In those days, underground betting was worth $2 billion. Today, underground betting is worth $4 billion. It’s huge. It’s unimaginably huge. Every ball, there’s a freak chance. It’s a satta bazaar. Nobody fixes matches anymore. You fix too much, you fix the ball,” Lalit was quoted as saying.
“We don’t know what success is. It has become very complicated. Someone takes out a handkerchief, someone else rubs something the other way, and that’s a sign. Well, we’re watching these signs. We’re looking for these signs,” said Lalit, explaining the sophisticated point-fixing methods, in which bookmakers target single balls or balls marked by secret signals on the pitch.
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Because he strictly monitored these signs and refused to give up, he became a prime target for the mafia, he said, adding that there was no match-fixing in the early years of the ISL when he was in charge.
“If you look at the first three years when I ran the Indian Premier League, there was no reform. I took a lot of people on my shoulders. I threw a lot of people off the field. I stopped a lot of people from coming. The mafia didn’t like it.”
He said he refused huge bribes. “They offered me hundreds of millions of dollars to turn a blind eye.”
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In the interview, Lalit mentioned a 2012 incident where a London-based intermediary connected him to fugitive Dawood Ibrahim via satellite phone from the apartment of a well-connected intermediary named Baba. In the speaker, Dawood tried to put pressure on Modi to facilitate an IPL franchise for the union.
“I didn’t tell this story to anyone… I was called at 3.30 in the morning… and he (the coordinator) said: ‘You have to come and meet this man, Baba. And you have to come now.” I thought maybe it was something important. So I go to Baba’s house. There he (Baba) says: I have left India, and we need an IPL team. I said I am not even in India. Why do you need an IPL team? Who wants to go and buy from someone who can go and buy it. Besides, I am not even going back to India; there is a Dawood problem there. I will fix it in a minute,” Lalit said.
“Then the intermediary went out to his balcony, took out a satellite phone, and allegedly called Dawood Ibrahim directly.” He took out his satellite phone and called David on the phone. Baba says: Dawood bhai, Lalit bhai aaya hai. Pat Caro. (Dawood bhai, Lalit bhai has come. Talk to him.) I said I was not talking. So he put the call on speakerphone. I said again, I don’t speak. David simply says: “You are his friend, forget everything, it is all over.”
The former IPL chief also revealed that his refusal to comply sparked a relentless wave of coordinated retaliation across the world, forcing law enforcement agencies to intervene.
“The Bombay Police recorded everything. It was conversations that came from the Bombay Police. The Bombay Police put me on Z Security. I didn’t ask for it. And suddenly, I had Z Security. There was a shootout outside my house in Bombay. There was a hit on me in Johannesburg. And I’m in Cape Town, picked up by the South African government. I was shot in Montenegro, picked up on the Croatian border. My son was kidnapped in London on Sloane Street, there… by a man called Baba Avin, who lived On Park Street,” Lalit claimed.
Lalit alleged that underworld feud escalated dramatically when he successfully moved the second season of the Indian Premier League to South Africa, disrupting huge betting syndicates who had bet that the tournament would not happen. “They accused me of moving the Indian Premier League to South Africa when they thought it wouldn’t because they ate the bets. So they lost a lot of money, apparently. So they wanted me to make that money. I didn’t ask him to accept the bet. I have nothing to do with it.”
Lalit claimed that this multi-layered standoff was defused only after senior union member Chhota Shakeel gave a live interview in which he asserted that the mafia had resolved its issues with Lalit Modi. When asked what exactly the reason for the decision was, Lalit explained that his personal guarantee was to completely walk away from the sport that saved his life.
“He (Chhota Shakeel) said we have resolved the issues with Lalit Modi… I just said I will retire from cricket. I have given my word that I will retire. It is one of the biggest reasons. One of the biggest reasons. Why subject myself to media pressure, government pressure and then life-threatening pressure?” Lalit said.
