Startling details of Modi’s links with team owners emerge

Even as the storm broke over the acrimonious war of words between Shashi Tharoor and Lalit Modi over the shareholders in the Kochi IPL franchise, an intricate international web of ownership of other IPL teams emerged, spreading from Nigeria to Mauritius to India.

Among what emerged was this: That IPL chairman and commissioner Lalit Modi’s brother-in-law (his wife Minal’s sister’s husband), Suresh Chellaram, a Nigeria-based businessman, is the majority shareholder in the Rajasthan Royals.

Chellaram confirmed this to the Hindustan Times on Tuesday. “My family does hold the largest stake in Jaipur IPL Cricket Pvt Ltd and I am Lalit Modi’s sister-in-law’s husband. But that’s always been well-documented, so I don’t think that’s an issue.”

It wouldn’t be, except for two things. First, most people haven’t really heard of Jaipur IPL Cricket Pvt Ltd (in the obscure way of how many IPL team ownerships are structured, JIPL is in turn owned by a Mauritius-based concern called EM Sporting Holdings).

Modi had detailed the ownership of the Kochi franchise on Twitter on Sunday, which the Kochi franchisees dubbed “a breach of faith”. BCCI president Shashank Manohar also called it “a serious breach of the confidentiality clause” of the agreement between the IPL and the Kochi team.

Modi responded by saying he believed everything should be transparent. Logically then, he should himself have first declared he had familial interests, direct or indirect, in the IPL teams.

Source : http://www.hindustantimes.com/mumbai/Startling-details-of-Modi-s-links-with-team-owners-emerge/531032/H1-Article1-530953.aspx