The E-Auction for media rights of cricket’s hottest property, IPL, is going on in Mumbai for the 3 day in a row.While the top broadcasters of the nations are going toe-to-toe to buy media rights of the competition for the next five years, Lalit Modi has made a big and bold prediction. The original architect of IPL, Lalit Modi – who is now a fugitive – has reacted on the ongoing Media Rights auction. Reacting to an user on Twitter, Modi said that his name has also been banned and commentators are not even allowed to utter his name. He further claimed that ‘they’ (without mentioning anyone clearly) are now reaping the rewards of what he had built. The 56-year-old also said that it does not bother him.
“They even banned my name – no commentary allowed to even bring it up. This is the fear they have as they did nothing to establish it. But reap the money. It does not bother me. Small minded. Crab mentality. But they can’t take away the fact I created it. That’s enough for me,” he tweeted. Reminiscing the initial days of the IPL, Modi said IPL as an idea was written off by many naysayers in 2007. "When we conceived the idea back in 2007, there were a lot of naysayers. Will this work? Why would companies own teams? What about the auction? Isn’t it immoral? We had all these questions thrown at us right at the start. But we knew just what we were aiming for. We had a lot of friends to thank for believing in our product," he added.He also pointed out that IPL investors like Reliance and GMR have diversified their sports portfolios by investing in new sporting leagues. According to him, the credit for attracting corporates to sports should go to IPL."Today those very people have grown into massive cricket business houses investing in leagues worldwide, like what we have with Knight Riders! There are others also, like the GMR and Reliance, who are keen to diversify into other leagues. It is all due to the success of the IPL that these companies have the belief in expanding their vision and growing in other territories. But nothing will be bigger than their IPL investment, ever!" he said.
