BCCI show-cause for Modi after ECB allegations

The BCCI has issued a show-cause notice to Lalit Modi, the suspended IPL commissioner, after receiving an email from the ECB alleging activities by Modi that are "detrimental to Indian cricket, English cricket and world cricket at large." It is believed that the charge pertains to efforts to set up a parallel IPL in the UK, with the help of the counties, that would undermine the ECB.

The BCCI said the mail was sent to its president, Shashank Manohar, by Giles Clarke, his counterpart in the ECB. When contacted, the ECB said it had no comment to offer. Modi has 15 days to report to this notice.

Modi already faces a show-cause notice issued by the BCCI on April 26 specifying five charges involving the initial franchise bids for Rajasthan Royals and Kings XI Punjab, the rigging of franchise bids in 2010, the sale of broadcasting and internet rights and his "behavioral pattern". He is to respond to that notice by May 11.

According to PTI, which said it had a copy of the document, the five-page notice issued on Thursday referred to a meeting Modi held on March 31 in Delhi with representatives of English counties including Yorkshire, Lancashire and Warwickshire, in which he is alleged to have discussed a parallel IPL in England and Wales in which eight existing franchises would bid for nine counties in UK.

The BCCI's chargesheet, as quoted by PTI, was detailed. "You have allegedly discussed this as a commercial proposition...and also set out that IPL would guarantee each county a minimum of $3-5 million per annum plus a staging fee of $1.5 million if the counties supported this idea," it said.

"You have allegedly offered a structured deal, by which the returns would be shared 80:20 between the franchises and the counties, a player model based on the IPL model and offered inducement to gather the rest of the county members to support your ideas and goad them to overpower their own governing bodies.

"You have allegedly planted a seed of thought of players' revolt if the governing bodies of respective cricket boards do not allow them to participate in this extended version of IPL."

If Clarke's allegations were true, it said, Modi's activities would amount to a blow to "the very foundation of the way cricket is administered and played across the world".

"It challenges not just the authority of BCCI but also (that of) ECB and suggested that IPL would henceforth literally shift to the hands of the franchises and the respective national governing bodies would be forced to watch helplessly while the game and the power of administration are hijacked," the notice said.

"Therefore after due consultation with President BCCI, this show-cause notice is being issued to you, calling upon you to give your explanation to the above grave charges within 15 days of receipt of this show-cause notice, failing which it will be deemed that you have no explanation to offer."