Lalit Modi is would seem is ever in the eye or a storm and more particularly in the eye of a storm created by cricket controversies! As regular readers of cricket news may know, Modi in his capacity as President of the Rajasthan Cricket Association (RCA) has come in for a lot of very serious allegations and charges allegations and charges - such as fraud, misappropriation etc. and in this connection his aide has also been arrested. Modi has also had to resort to the precaution of getting himself anticipatory bail, fearing arrest himself.

Now, obviously fed up with the legal battles and the haranguing he faces in his own back yard, Modi never one to take things lying down has lashed out and played his trump card,. He has threatened to shift the Twenty20 matches out of Jaipur, saying the recent FIRs lodged against him were "politically motivated" and has also said that he had the authority of the Indian Premier League Governing Council to decide on the venue of the IPL matches and that shifting them from Jaipur was an option being considered.

He was reported in the cricket news as saying, "It is going to deter the IPL management from staging matches (in Jaipur). The Governing Council has already taken a decision authorising me to decide whether we should be able to hold matches anywhere, whether it's one place or x, y, z," indicating that he was the decision maker and those that crossed his path could do so at their own peril and face the consequences too. He went on to say that "The option to move matches (out of Jaipur) is available to us. We are looking at alternate venues without doubt. If any government anywhere is going to deter the IPL management from staging matches we would take away those matches and hold them elsewhere." Threatening to take away the IPL matches from Jaipur is without doubt a trump card that Modi is wielding and now using to great effect.

The ruling congress party’s party's state President C P Joshi has responded to Modi’s stance by saying that he has no right to shift the matches out of Jaipur. He said that the government will cooperate fully with the holding of Indian Premier League matches in Jaipur and that the differences that the RCA officials and Modi have between them should not “deprive the cricket loving people of Rajasthan of IPL”.

In what appears to be a fight to the finish, we shall be watching with interest to see who emerges as victor!

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3.25 Copyright (C) 2007 Alain Georgette / Copyright (C) 2006 Frantisek Hliva. All rights reserved."

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