Former Indian Premier League (IPL) commissioner Lalit Modi has made some startling revelations involving underworld don Dawood Ibrahim and his control of the IPL.
Lalit Modi made the claim in an interview with news agency ANI where he said how he faced life threats and intimidation from Dawood and his crime syndicate which was one of the single biggest reasons for him to quit cricket administration.
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Lalit further opened up on how his unyielding stance against match-fixing during the initial years of the IPL directly collided with the multi-billion-dollar underground betting empire controlled by the D-Company.
He said that the syndicate operates an unimaginably vast “Satta Bazaar” where odds change with every single ball.
“Dawood Ibrahim is a known bookmaker. He controlled the cricket book. In those days, it used to be $2 billion of underground betting. Today, it’s $4 billion of underground betting a game. It’s huge. It’s unimaginably huge. Every ball, there’s an odd chance. It’s the Satta Bazaar. Nobody fixes games anymore. You fix overs. You fix the ball,” Lalit was quoted as saying.
Explaining the sophisticated spot-fixing methods where bookies target individual balls or specific overs through covert on-field signals, Lalit said, “We don’t know what success is. It’s become so sophisticated. Somebody takes out a handkerchief, somebody rubs something the other way, and it’s a sign. Okay, we watch for these signs. We look for these signs.”
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He said that because he strictly monitored these signs and refused to give in, he became a primary target for the mafia, adding that there was no match-fixing in the initial years of the IPL when he was in-charge.
“If you look at the first three years when I ran the IPL, there was no fixing. I took a lot of people to task. And I threw a lot of people out of the stadium. I banned a lot of people from coming. It wasn’t liked by the mafia.
He said that he rejected massive bribes. “They offered me hundreds of millions of dollars to look the other way.”
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In the interview, Lalit mentioned an incident from 2012 where a fixer in London connected him to fugitive don Dawood Ibrahim via a satellite phone from the penthouse of well-connected intermediary named Baba. On speaker, Dawood tried to pressure Modi into facilitating an IPL franchise for the syndicate.
“I have not told this story to anybody… I’m called at 3.30 in the morning… He (fixer) says, ‘You have to come and meet this guy, Baba. And you have to come now.’ I thought maybe it’s something important. So I go to Baba’s house. There, he (Baba) says, ‘You have left India, we need an IPL team.’ I said I am not even in India. Why do you need an IPL team? Whoever wants to go and buy from someone can go buy it. Moreover, I’m not even going back to India; there is a Dawood problem there. To which he said, ‘I will fix it in a minute,'” Lalit was quoted as saying.
“The intermediary then went out onto his terrace, took out a satellite phone, and allegedly dialled Dawood Ibrahim directly. “He goes on his terrace. He takes out his satellite phone and calls Dawood on the phone. Baba says, ‘Dawood bhai, Lalit bhai aaya hai. Baat karo.’ (Dawood Bhai, Lalit bhai has come. Talk to him.) I said I’m not talking. So he put the call on speaker. I again said, I’m not talking. And he (Dawood) simply says, ‘You are his friend, forget everything, it is all over,'” Lalit claimed..
The former IPL chief further disclosed that his refusal to comply triggered a relentless wave of coordinated retaliation across the globe, forcing law enforcement agencies to intervene.
“Bombay police recorded everything. It was chatter that came from the Bombay police. Bombay police put me on Z-security. I didn’t ask for it. All of a sudden, I had Z-security. There was a shootout outside my house in Bombay. There was a hit for me in Johannesburg. And I’m in Cape Town, which was picked up by the South African government. There was a hit on me in Montenegro, which was picked up at the Croatian border. My son was kidnapped in London on Sloane Street, right there… by a guy called Baba Avin. He lived on Park Street,” Lalit claimed.
Lalit alleged that the underworld’s hostility escalated drastically when he successfully relocated IPL Season 2 to South Africa, disrupting massive betting syndicates that had wagered the tournament would not happen. “They accused me of moving IPL to South Africa when they thought it was not going to move because they ate the bets up. So they lost a lot of money, apparently. So they wanted me to make good that money. I didn’t ask him to take the bet. I don’t have anything to do with it,” he explained.
Lalit claimed that this multi-layered standoff was only defused after top syndicate operative Chhota Shakeel gave a live interview confirming that the mafia had resolved its issues with Lalit Modi. When asked what exactly was resolved, Lalit clarified that it was his personal guarantee to completely step away from the sport that saved his life.
“He (Chhota Shakeel) said we have resolved issues with Lalit Modi… I just said I will retire from cricket. I gave my word I would retire. It’s one of the biggest reasons. One of the biggest reasons. Why would I subject myself to media pressure, government pressure, and then life-threatening pressure?” Lalit said.