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The man calls himself the architect of the cash-rich Indian Premier League. The world calls him controversy’s child. Lalit Modi (or LaMo) is now the new NaMO when it comes to occupying media space. For this flamboyant businessman, the fall has been as meteoric as his rise. The same man who bagged the ‘Business Standard Award’ in 2008 for making BCCI the Most Innovative Company in India, found himself suspended as Chairman and Commissioner of the IPL in 2010 on charges of impropriety. From becoming one of the youngest BCCI vice presidents in 2005 to facing humiliation of life ban in 2013, he has seen it all.
Now, before you get tired of his theatrics and look for new thrills, know a thing or two about the disgraced cricket administrator.
Lalit Modi’s Early Brush With Controversy
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1. During his academic years at Duke University in North Carolina, between 1983 and 1986, Lalit Modi was arrested for allegedly abetting cocaine trafficking and second-degree kidnapping. He pleaded guilty.
A Man of Diverse Business Interests
2. Lalit Modi is the President and Managing Director of Modi Enterprises, which is reportedly a $5-billion business empire.
3. Till 27 May 2015, Modi was the Director of Godfrey Phillips India Ltd. (GPIL), a part of K K Modi Group (named after Lalit Modi’s father), which has an annual turnover of Rs. 3600 crore ($570 million), according to the 2013-14 estimate.
4. Besides tobacco, GPIL, has expanded business interests in tea and confectionery. Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan is its brand ambassador.
5. In 1993, Lalit Modi entered into a 10-year joint venture with Walt Disney Pictures to broadcast Disney’s content (including Fashion TV) in India. The Modi Entertainment Networks (MEN) was set up.
6. In 1994, Lalit Modi bagged a 10-year contract for pan-India distributorship of ESPN. It was worth $975 million.
Lalit Modi’s Political Connection
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7. The ex-IPL Chief had reportedly invested Rs. 11.63 crore in a firm owned by Rajasthan CM Vasundhara Raje’s son, Dushyant Singh. It happened during Raje’s first tenure.
8. On 2 October 2014, the Rajasthan government signed an MoU with a Portuguese hospital (Champalimaud Foundation) to set up an advanced cancer institute in Jaipur. Two months later, Lalit Modi’s wife Minal was treated at the same Lisbon-based hospital. Coincidence can’t be more surprising.
9. LaMo opened the can of worms in one of the interviews where he admitted that Raje had accompanied his wife to that hospital in 2012-2013 since he could not.
Lalit Modi’s Life in Exile
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10. In May 2010, Lalit Modi left for London under the pretext that he faced a threat from the underworld.
11. He may have left his home country to escape from prosecution, but his flamboyance didn’t desert him. If reports are to be believed, LaMo is leading a lavish life in London. A 7000-sq ft mansion in posh Sloane Street is his new address.
12. The 5-storey house comes with eight double bedrooms, seven bathrooms and four reception rooms, apart from two guest rooms and kitchens. The mansion, which makes a tenant poorer by Rs 12 lakh per month (as of 2011), has been taken on a long lease with a provision for extensions.
Recognitions
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13. In 2008, Lalit Modi was honoured for ‘Excellence in Innovation’ at the Frost & Sullivan Growth Excellence Awards and named ‘The Most Innovative Business Leader in India’ by NDTV Profit.
14. In July 2008, Time magazine rated him as the 16th best sports executive in the world. Couple of months later in October, Business Week ranked him 19th in a list of 25 most powerful global sports figures.
15.In the same year, he was presented with ‘The Consumer Award for Transforming Cricket in India’ by CNBC Awaaz.
As the BJP government tries to firefight the controversy over Sushma Swaraj’s help to facilitate travel documents for LaMo and Rajasthan CM plays an estranged friend, LaMo says, “In war there are no winners I know. But I can assure u I will still be standing”.
