MUMBAI, (Reuters) – Former Indian Premier League chief Lalit Modi was named president of the Rajasthan Cricket Association yesterday 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 yesterday. 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.
