Modi hearings to be held in September

The BCCI and suspended IPL chairman Lalit Modi will each have the opportunity to present witnesses over the course of six future hearings scheduled by the board's disciplinary committee at its meeting in New Delhi on Sunday. The board will get its chance to do so from September 13th through September 15th while Modi will get his turn from September 26th through September 28th.

"It is agreed that the BCCI would submit a list of witnesses along with their witness statement on or before 7th September 2010, with advance copy to counsels of Mr. Modi," the board said in a statement. "It will be the responsibilities of the BCCI to make these witnesses available for cross-examination by the counsels of Mr. Modi."

Once the BCCI has finished presenting its evidence, Modi's lawyers will have a week to file their list of witnesses and their statements, and make the witnesses available for cross-examination on the dates set by the committee.

The two sides also have to submit a list of documents belonging to the other party that they dispute by the same September 7 deadline. The hearings will be held at the Taj Palace hotel in New Delhi. They will be split into two sessions, the first from 10.00 a.m. to 1 p.m. and the second from 6.00 p.m. to 9.00 p.m.

Modi's legal counsel Mehmood Abdi said he also had the option of taking the matter to the High Court once the disciplinary proceedings concluded.

At its last hearing on August 11, the committee rejected a request by Modi asking for interim IPL chairman Chirayu Amin and BCCI vice-president Arun Jaitley to recuse themselves from the proceedings on grounds that they were biased against him.

The committee has until October 26 to submit its recommendations to the board. The BCCI suspended Modi immediately following the conclusion of IPL 3 in April and charged him with financial irregularities relating to the bidding process for IPL franchises, the mid-over ad sales and the sale of theatrical rights. He was also charged with colluding to set up a parallel league in England.