By the beginning of the 21st century, cricket had become a multi-million dollar sport. The next challenge was to get into the billion-dollar club, but the journey from 1 million to 1 billion is a thousandfold. It felt like it would take a long time for cricket to reach there.
Then there was the entry of a character who was ready to go to any extent to be successful. He transformed cricket into a multi-billion dollar industry within a year. It's about 2008. The IPL had started and Lalit Modi had dominated.
What happened after that is in front of us. There were reports of rigging in IPL. There were allegations of fixing. Arabs were swindled. Lalit Modi became the first accused. Then he became a fugitive. At present, Sushmita remains the husband of Sen.
Modi broke all limits to achieve success, but it is not that he started breaking limits after coming to BCCI or setting up IPL. This is what 56-year-old Modi has been doing his whole life.
Father gave 5 thousand dollars to buy a cheap car and paid the first installment of Mercedes from it
Lalit Modi is the son of industrialist Krishna Kumar Modi. Lalit's grandfather Gujarmal Modi had formed the Modi Group and established the city of Modinagar. There was no shortage of money, but Krishna Kumar wanted the son to respect money. He had put Lalit Modi in a boarding school in Shimla. Lalit insisted on studying in America. Father hardly obeyed. After reaching America, Lalit's demand increased further. He asked his father to get the car. Father gave them five thousand dollars and advised them to get a cheap car.
Lalit Modi did not buy a cheap car. He took Mercedes on car installation and paid 5 thousand dollars as the first installment. He became the first member of the family to take a car in installments. He was later caught in the US with 400 grams of cocaine. He was also charged with drug peddling, kidnapping, and assault. The buzz in the media at that time was that Lalit had managed to escape due to family influence.
Fell in love with mother's friend, married despite huge opposition
When Modi returned from America, he became friends with his mother's friend Minal Sagrani. Meenal was about 10 years older than Lalit. She was the ex-wife of a Sindhi industrialist living in Nigeria. Modi expressed his desire to marry Meenal. The family protested heavily. Still, he married. After marriage, family members kept her away from business for a long time. He used to get a fixed allowance from his father to stay in Mumbai.
Later Lalit returned to business. In 1992, he became the executive director of the Indian business of the American cigarette company Godfrey Phillips. Godfrey Phillips was then the second largest cigarette company in India. Later on, Modi also bought their wife Minal's father's house and presented it to him. This story may sound inspiring, but also know that this house caught fire in 2019. It was alleged that the house was set on fire to get a hefty amount of insurance.
Change the name for entry in cricket, get the rules changed
Lalit Modi started Modi Entertainment Network in 1993. The company signed a 10-year deal with Walt Disney Pictures and Fashion TV. The company used to distribute its channel in India. During this time he also got a chance to distribute Walt Disney's channel ESPN. Many matches of the Indian cricket team were telecasted live on ESPN. Modi recognized the power of cricket here. He soon realized that the cricket market was much more than what the people running it had expected at the time. He used to think that billions can be earned through cricket. The idea of IPL came to him only then.
To work on this idea, Modi himself decided to join the cricket administration. First, he came to Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association. Seeing not much talk here, he decided to enter the Rajasthan Cricket Association. For this, he decided to contest the election of the District Cricket Association from Nagaur. He was already associated with Himachal and could not contest elections in another state under the rule. For this, he wrote his name only Lalit Kumar instead of Lalit Kumar Modi. They got selected.
Then he also became the President of the Rajasthan Cricket Association. At that time there was a government of Vasundhara Raje in Rajasthan. Before the elections, a new rule was made in Rajasthan. This led to the disqualification of 66 district cricket officials who cast their votes. Only 32 votes were cast. Modi won and became the president.
After this Lalit Modi went to Jagmohan Dalmiya with the idea of IPL, but Dalmiya did not put the grass. Then he went to Dalmiya's rival Sharad Pawar. Sharad Pawar was convinced by his idea. After defeating Dalmiya, Pawar became the BCCI President and Lalit Modi got the responsibility of starting the IPL.
Used to travel by private jet, used to visit five cities in a day
After becoming IPL chairman, Modi kept a private jet to travel around the country and the world. This Challenger 300 was a luxury 8-seater jet. At that time the fare for chartering this jet for one hour was around Rs 3 lakh. It is alleged that Modi always kept it available for himself. His close friends say that he used to visit four-five different corner towns in a day. At that time the people of the airport used to ask whether it was a jet or a taxi. Big industrialists also use jets with great care. Modi used to use this luxury plane as a taxi.
Fugitive industrialist Vijay Mallya's daughter Laila was Modi's assistant
When Lalit Modi's IPL scam came to light, the name of a woman Laila Mehmood also came to the fore. It was later revealed that the woman was the step-daughter of industrialist Vijay Mallya and worked as Modi's assistant.
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