The Board of Control for Cricket in India top brass will meet sports management firm IMG’s officials on Monday in Mumbai to seek clarification on the financial dealings during suspended Indian Premier League chaiman Lalit Modi’s tenure.
IMG has been managing IPL since 2008 and has been accused along with Modi for allegedly planning a parallel T20 league in England. The firm would be represented by senior vice-president Andrew Whiteblood and legal experts Paul Manning and John Loffhagen.
They are scheduled to meet president Shashank Manohar and secretary N. Srinivasan at the BCCI’s headquarters with interim IPL chairman Chirayu Amin and his advisor Bharat Patel.
IMG has already served a writ of defamation on England and Wales Cricket Board president Giles Clarke for questioning the firm’s integrity. BCCI’s second showcause notice to Modi alleged that IMG officials Whiteblood and Peter Griffiths made a presentation to the representatives from Yorkshire, Lancashire and Warwickshire in New Delhi on March 31.
The board has convened the meeting for the IMG officials to apprise them on all matters relating to the IPL, including the awarding of the global broadcast rights to Multi Screen Media-World Sports Group, since its conception.
“There are still concerns regarding the broadcast deal of the IPL. The board is still in the dark about alleged $80 million ‘facilitation fee’ paid by MSM,” a board source said.
The global media rights were sold to the Sony-WSG consortium for a ten-year period for $1.026 billion that included a commitment of $108 million towards promotions. The original deal that was later re-negotiated to a whopping Rs 8,200-crore nine-year deal with the same MSM (previously Sony)-WSG consortium one year later in an out-of-court settlement after BCCI cancelled Sony’s bid for breaking contractual clauses.