Amin is IPL interim chairman; Manohar assures fair Modi trial

MUMBAI - The Governing Council of the Indian Premier League (IPL) appointed cricket board vice-president Chirayu Amin as the interim chairman of the league and also assured that investigations against the league’s suspended commissioner Lalit Modi will be free and fair.

Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) president Shashank Manohar, after chairing the meeting said the board will enquire into all the allegations against Modi, who has been chargesheeted on five points which are initial bids of Rajasthan Royals and Kings XI Punjab, the broadcasting deal, bid rigging in 2010, Internet rights of IPL and behavioral patterns of Modi.

Modi, who is also the BCCI vice-president, has also been suspended from his other positions in the board as well.

“In the last 15 days, there were lots of allegations and counter-allegations made through media as a result of which the board looked into the allegations levelled and took a decision to issue a show cause notice to Lalit Modi and, pending inquiry, decided to suspend him. The board will hold, after receiving a reply from Mr. Modi, an inquiry if necessary. If the reply or Mr Modi convinces the members, the proceedings will be dropped,” said Manohar.

Manohar said that it was important to suspend Modi so that a free and fair trial could be conducted.

“For free and fair enquiry it was necessary to suspend Modi so that he cannot interfere with the enquiry process,” he said.

Manohar also said that BCCI Chief Administrative Officer Ratnakar Shetty will look into the documents which are reportedly missing.

“We have also asked professor Shetty to look into the documents as many documents are missing. Every day Income Tax department is asking for documents and we don’t have them. So professor Shetty will look into the missing documents and will collect the documents,” Manohar added.

Twelve members of the Governing Council, except Modi and Jammu and Kashmir president Farooq Abdullah, were present at the meeting held under the chairmanship of Manohar at the Cricket Centre in Wankhede Stadium here.

The other members of the Governing Council are Punjab Cricket Association chief Inderjit Singh Bindra, BCCI treasurer M.P. Pandove, vice presidents Amin, Rajeev Shukla, Arjun Jaitley, board secretary N. Srinivasan, joint secretary Sanjay Jagdale, IPL vice-chairman Niranjan Shah and former India captains Ravi Shastri, Sunil Gavaskar and Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi.

Meanwhile, the Governing Council also decided to form a three-member panel comprising Pataudi, Gavaskar and Shastri to look into the modalities of retaining three foreign and four Indian players with the franchisees for the fourth edition of the IPL for which the players would be reauctioned again.