Fixing clouds hover over IPL auctions – Indian Premier League
After a series of controversies, the Indian Premier League (IPL) seems to be embracing another one, and may be the most astonishing as well, as now it is learnt that the players’ auctions of the cash-rich event were fixed.
CNN-IBN has accessed e-mails that suggest Chennai Super Kings’ owner and BCCI Secretary N Srinivasan could have been involved in ensuring specific players for the Chennai franchise in unison with suspended IPL chairman Lalit Modi.
The news has also raised some serious questions over the authenticity of the auction that took place in 2009 as it is learnt that Srinivasan tried to fix the bid of England all-rounder Andrew Flintoff in his favour.
A question is raised; were the two big-wigs of Indian cricket were involved in fixing certain aspects of the IPL before their fall-out?
Just two days before the 2009 IPL auction, Lalit Modi wrote to Srinivasan, assuring him that he had convinced the Rajasthan Royals and their captain Shane Warne not to bid for Flintoff.
Two days later, Flintoff was bought by the Chennai Super Kings for a whopping $ 1.55 million, making him the IPL’s most expensive player.
And things don’t stop with Flintoff’s bidding. At the 2010 auction, Srinivasan’s Chennai Super Kings bid ferociously for big-hitting West Indies all-rounder Kieron Pollard, losing him in the tie-breaker to the Mumbai Indians. But CNN-IBN now has documents that suggest that, as secretary of the BCCI, Srinivasan then tried to prevent Mumbai Indians from actually playing Pollard.
The revelation has also put more question-marks on the functioning of Lalit Modi as the commissioner of the IPL. Modi was suspended after his alleged involvement in financial irregularities surrounding the event.
via Fixing clouds hover over IPL auctions – Indian Premier League – Cricket Next.
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