MUMBAI — Former Indian Premier League chief Lalit Modi was named president of the Rajasthan Cricket Association (RCA) Tuesday but his hopes of defying a life ban on holding any position with an administrative body in India were challenged immediately. The flamboyant 50-year-old was banned by an Indian Cricket Board (BCCI) disciplinary committee last year over financial and administrative irregularities during his stint as chairman of the Twenty20 league's first three editions. His latest appointment is unlikely to last, however, after the BCCI wasted little time in suspending the Rajasthan authority, pending disciplinary proceedings against it on charges of misconduct. “Keeping in mind the interests of the sport of cricket and in order to safeguard the best interests and welfare of the cricketers playing the game in different age-groups and their future, an ad-hoc committee will be constituted shortly by the BCCI,” the board said in a statement. Modi, who has denied any wrongdoing, stood for election as the head of the Rajasthan Cricket Association in a poll conducted in December and the result was announced by a court-appointed observer Tuesday. A court-appointed observer opened the results, and Modi secured 24 out of 33 votes to win the election for president. The Rajasthan body is expected to challenge the BCCI sanction in court. The combative billionaire was vice president of the BCCI from 2005 until September 2010, soon after he had been removed from his position in charge of the IPL. Modi has long been the most vocal critic of Narayanaswami Srinivasan, the industrialist who has run the BCCI since 2011 and will become chairman of the International Cricket Council (ICC) in July. In an interview with ESPNcricinfo, Modi revealed that he wanted to “prove a point” to his detractors, chiefly Srinivasan, the BCCI president who was himself forced to step aside by the Supreme Court in March. “When the BCCI banned me, I had to prove a point,” Modi said. “(I wanted to) show to everybody that banning me does not mean that I am going to stay away. It actually gave me greater resolve to fight them.” “All they (Srinivasan's administration) are doing right now is to trying to fix everything: whether it is the game, the establishment, the meetings. Everything has become a one-man show. They are now trying to do the same at the ICC. To me that is just unacceptable. I just love the game. And hence cannot keep quiet,” he added. For the first time, Modi has also said that he was actively supporting the Cricket Association of Bihar (CAB) which has taken the BCCI and Srinivasan to the Supreme Court for its alleged mismanagement of the 2013 IPL corruption scandal. Modi said: “I have given CAB full support. I am with them, talking with them, strategizing with them, providing them with documentation.” Srinivasan, Modi said, had accumulated so much power that no one within the BCCI dared to oppose him. He even went as far as to suggest that it was his incessant opposition to Srinivasan that had resulted in the court sidelining the BCCI president. “We have got to a stage where we need to remove the operation being run by N. Srinivasan. If it wasn't for me fighting him from London it (Srinivasan being asked to step aside by the Supreme Court) would not have happened in the first place. If I hadn't supported all the people who are fighting him, he would not have been pushed into a corner like right now.” Modi said that he was aware the BCCI was bound to challenge his election and bar the RCA. “Let them try. I am not afraid of that fight. I have not been afraid of any fight. If they want to not cancel our affiliation, let them do that. That does not mean cricket in Rajasthan is going to stop.” — Agencies
