Wait for IPL meeting on Tharoor controversy, says Farooq Abdullah

JAMMU - New and Renewable Energy Minister Farooq Abdullah on Saturday said that things will be clear on Tharoor IPL controversy after the IPL Governing Council meeting on April 23.

“This controversy has been very bad in itself. Now when the meeting in Mumbai will take place on April 23, we will get details as to what really transpired, what has happened, and then only….I have told the people in Delhi also when they spoke to me about it, then only I will be able to tell them what has been the problem. I have also requested that the BCCI being the main institution that runs cricket in India will have to play a major role in future,” Abdullah said.

Abdullah, referring to the statement made by Tharoor in the Parliament, described the development as unfortunate.

“I think that as a minister of union cabinet, it has been the most unfortunate. Yesterday his (Shashi Tharoor) statement came out. He laid it on the table of the house in which he clearly says that he is in no way involved. He has no financial interest in it. He said exactly the same thing. He says as far as he was concerned, his concern was for his state. He got the team franchised for his state and that is what we know from his statement,” said Abdullah, who is also the president of the Jammu and Kashmir Cricket Association.

Tharoor is embroiled in a controversy after IPL Commissioner Lalit Modi tweeted to reveal that Sunanda Pushkar, a close friend of Tharoor, had been gifted equity worth Rs 70 crores in the new Kochi team which was sold for Rs 1530 crores last month.

Modi in his email to the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) chief Shashank Manohar had stated it was Tharoor who called him and instructed him not to reveal the identities of the stakeholders of the Kochi IPL franchisee.

Tharoor, however, has denied pressurising Modi. (ANI)