THE GUNS seem to have gone silent for the moment and there is a lull on the battlefront. The warring factions appear to have made their peace.It has been finally announced that, after all, Lalit Modi will continue heading the IPL (much to the chagrin of board secretary N Srinivasan) and that earlier rumours of Modi having his wings clipped were a trifle premature.
In the all-important working committee meeting in Mumbai on 17 December, N Srinivasan sat silently – almost like a tomb – and acquiesced to most of the decisions that were announced.
But, once again, Sharad Pawar had to crack the whip. In the days preceding the Mumbai meeting, the concerned parties met at Pawar’s residence, where they were given a dressing down by the political honcho.
“Mr Pawar made it clear to them that this was no way of functioning and they were just coming up with some absurd fighting point or the other every few days and were making a laughing stock of themselves and that he wanted to see an end to this in-fighting,” said an official who was there at Pawar’s residence when the meeting took place.
In this all-too-apparent war between Modi and Srinivasan, Pawar has once again thrown his weight behind Modi (as he had done earlier on the IMG issue). Seasoned Pawar understands fully well that it’s Modi who brings in mega bucks for the board. If Modi inducts two new franchises in the IPL, that will only mean more money for the board. So, in a way, Modi talks and thinks about the bigger picture.
Whereas whenever Srinivasan opposes Modi, he does so purely to benefit his own franchise – Chennai Superkings (CSK). Srinivasan does not want to lose players like Dhoni because CSK will suffer. Srinivasan resents the entry of two more franchises because his set-up will have to share the spoils with two more entrants in the fray. In other words, Srinivasan is more concerned about the profits of CSK than about the profits of the Board. This fact is not lost on Pawar. According to him, Modi looks at the bigger picture, while Srinivasan has a myopic outlook. (It is also futile to argue that Pawar is no longer BCCI president, because – for obvious reasons – Pawar still continues to be powerful).
For the moment though, even Srinivasan seems to have been appeased. It is being said that after the initial contracts are over, the franchisees will be allowed to retain their top players – like Dhoni and Sachin. But I feel (and insiders confirm) that even this is just a ruse. The modalities of retaining these big players will be made so tough (by IPL commissioner Modi) that it will make more sense for the franchises to ultimately let them go.
The logic is simple. You cannot demand a base price of $ 225 million from new franchises and then tell them that they will not be able to bid for the top players. If they shell out that kind of money, then of course they will want the big names as well.
There were initial reports that a move might be afoot to force Modi to relinquish his position as the IPL commissioner but a special AGM would have been necessary for that and a two-thirds majority would also have been needed to remove him. Modi then met up with Jagmohan Dalmiya in a bid to garner support. But his (Modi’s) meeting with Dalmiya gave Srinivasan the chance once again to go for a move against Modi.
But it was all put to rest by Pawar. It is learnt that Pawar has even advised Modi to cut out all the rancour with CP Joshi and present a rosy picture for everybody’s consumption and also stop this talk of taking away IPL games from Jaipur etc.
Pictures were promptly displayed in the media of Modi and Srinivasan posing together (at the working committee meeting), of Modi and CP Joshi posing together. So, outwardly there appears to be a ceasefire. But of course, like always, Srinivasan is still waiting for another chance and is again biding his time to go after Modi. (After all Srinivasan is likely to become the next board president).
On two occasions now (the IMG issue and the IPL commissioner issue), the will of Sharad Pawar has prevailed and he has ruled in favour of Modi. On both these occasions, Srinivasan has been thwarted. But he (Srinivasan) waits for Round Three. Modi will continue as the commissioner of the IPL till 2012. But the rift between Modi and Srinivasan is far from over.
