Thaindian News

New Delhi, April 13 (IANS) Minister of State for External Affairs Shashi Tharoor Tuesday denied Indian Premier League (IPL) commissioner Lalit Modi’s allegations that he had told him not to question the composition of the consortium that had bought the Kochi team.
Slamming Modi, Tharoor said: “The unethical efforts that have been made by Modi and others to thwart the Kerala franchise which had been won fair and square in a transparent bidding process are disgraceful.

“I deny Lalit Modi’s allegation that I called him during his meeting with investors in the Kochi consortium in Bangalore Saturday night in order to press him not to question the composition of the consortium,” the minister said in a statement.

Modi Monday revealed the details of the stakeholders in the new Kochi team, which is to join the next year’s edition. The team that was last month sold for Rs.1,530 crore has Tharoor’s friend Sunanda Pushkar owning 18 percent free equity.

Rendezvous Sports World, one of the partners in the consortium, has 25 percent of the franchise for free; of this, 18 percent is given to Sunanda and the balance is divided among three other Rendezvous members.

Modi in his tweets claimed he was asked not to get into who owns the Rendezvous.

“I was told by him (Tharoor) not to get into who owns rendezvous. Specially Sunanda Pushkar. Why? The same has been minuted in my records,” he tweeted.