New IPL chief named Chirayu Amin

Just after a day when IPL 3 finished, Lalit modi was sacked and a new IPL chief was named in Chirayu Amin. Indian Premier League (IPL) Monday appointed Indian cricket board vice-president Chirayu Amin as the interim chairman following the suspension of the league’s commissioner Lalit Modi.

Chirayu Amin will be the interim IPL Chairman, after the BCCI top brass who sat in on the Governing Council meeting today picked him as the replacement for the suspended Lalit Modi. Amin is a BCCI vice president and the head of the Baroda Cricket Association, and is a member of the IPL's Governing Council. He is also the Chairman and Managing Director of Alembic Pharmaceuticals. BCCI President, Shashank Manohar had been offered the post, but he refused it, whereupon Amin was appointed.

  Addressing the media after the council meeting, Shashank Manohar said that Ratnakar Shetty has also been appointed to look into all the records of the IPL, since many of the documents are missing and the BCCI has been unable to furnish some documents that the Income Tax Department has asked of them.

Manohar opened the media briefing by saying, "The commercial aspect of a great property like the IPL is an important thing. However, ethics and transparency are more important. But, in the last 15 days, a lot of allegations and counter-allegations have been there in the media. The Board has looked into the allegations levelled and took the decision to issue a show-cause notice to Mr. Modi, and, pending inquiry, decided to suspend him.

"I came here (to Bombay) three days ago to look though the documents in light of the ongoing controversy. I called Sundar Raman and asked for the contracts of the for the function of the IPL Awards, and he said there were no contracts since everything was finalized just last night. He told me this at 3 p.m. and the awards were to be held at 7 p.m. So in this case, what can the Governing Council do? Can we say that we reject this contract and the function is over? This is an example of how some things were beyond the Council's control."

On Modi's suspension, Manohar said that it was not a punishment, but merely a necessary step since allegations had to be investigated in a free and fair manner.

"It is the duty of the board to look into all the allegations made and to have a free and fair inquiry. It is necessary to suspend a person so that there is no scope for interfering. Suspension is not a punishment, it is, as i said only so that a free and fair inquiry can be held."

The charges being investigated against Lalit Modi were the following:

* The initial bids for the Kings XI Punjab and the Rajasthan Royals

* The broadcasting bid for the IPL

* Rigging the bid for the two new franchises

* The internet rights of the IPL

* The behavioural pattern of Lalit Modi

Manohar also elaborated on the holding pattern of the Rajasthan Royals, where he revealed that the initial bid was made by a company called Emerging Media based out of the United Kingdom, owned solely by one person - Mr. Manoj Badale. However, the documents were signed by an entity called Jaipur IPL.

He questioned how the bid was filed by one party and the documents signed by another. He also said that, "Modi made a statement that the entire world knows who are the franchises, but the fact is that even the Governing Council members are not aware of that."

So, where do you think the IPL controversy is heading??