Southern Spice – Sports Entertainment

Lalit Modi May Lose out at Board AGM

Lalit Modi, the high-profile BCCI VP is facing the heat as the Board sits for its AGM on Saturday in Mumbai. With The board is expected to ask president Sharad Pawar to continue as chairman of the powerful marketing committee, a post he held in his capacity as the board president. Modi was tipped to fill in after Pawar’s successor as BCCI chief, Shashank Manohar, made clear his disinclination to hold the marketing chairman’s post.

According to BCCI sources, the core members of BCCI, who met on Friday, decided to retain Pawar as the marketing committee chairman. Modi will continue to be vice-president of the world’s richest cricket board and also chairman of the Indian Premier League.

Incidentally, a top BCCI official had told TOI on Thursday evening that Modi was a unanimous choice for being the chairman of the marketing committee. What happened in the last 24 hours? One, Modi’s rebuttal of Ratnakar Shetty’s criticism of RCA for providing the Aussies with top-class facilities must have played on the minds of BCCI officials.

Two, his comments on former president Jagmohan Dalmiya, welcoming him to the AGM which starts in Mumbai on Saturday, must have added fuel to the fire.”You can’t say that Modi hasn’t been given the post because he went out of his way to help the Aussies or helped Dalmiya. Please don’t speculate and wait for the formal announcement,” a BCCI official suggested.

However, another senior official admitted that the RCA issue did make the board members, including Pawar, angry. “He had no business to go out of his way to make the Aussies feel at home. When the Indian team tours, they get just basic facilities to train. This came on top of the Chappell issue. When the Aussie coach had resigned amidst controversy, Modi should not have rehabilitated him and asked him to head the Jaipur academy. It (the removal) was waiting to happen,” he said.

Apart from Pawar, his trusted lieutenant and president-elect, Shashank Manohar, his new secretary N Srinivasan, treasurer M P Pandove, Vijay Mallya, Rajiv Shukla, Chirayu Amin are the other prominent members in the marketing committee.

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