National

Tharoor Finally Quits over IPL Controversy

Amid allegations of corruption in IPL, Union Minister of State for External Affairs Shashi Tharoor has stepped down, said media reports.

Tharoor was under pressure to resign following Kochi team controversy erupted and it came to light that his friend Sunanda Pushkar was given a 10 million stake in a new IPL side.

Tharoor, a parliamentarian from Kerala, however all along denied any wrong doing, saying that he was merely a ‘mentor’ for the consortium, Rendezvous Sports World, that successfully bid $330 million for the Kochi IPL franchise last month.

Addressing the Parliament, he said that Pushkar got a £10 million stake in the team for work she was to do over the next 10 years under a financial arrangement that is ‘a common practice around the world for start-up ventures’.

IPL commissioner Lalit Modi had leaked the details of the ownership of the Kochi team on the Twitter website.

Before disclosing the names on Twitter, Modi posted a message on the site saying: “Who are the shareholders of rendezvous. And why have they been given this 100’s of million dollar bonanza?”

In response, Tharoor had alleged that Modi was trying to influence the sales process to favour a bidder he had preferred.

He said in a statement that Modi was attempting to ‘discredit the (Kochi) team and create reasons to disqualify it so that the franchise can be awarded elsewhere’.

Also, he accused Modi of an ‘extraordinary breach of all propriety in publicly raising issues relating to the composition of the consortium (of owners) and myself personally’.

Modi, one of cricket’s most influential and colourful characters, may now also face a threat to his position.

(Based on internet reports)

Show More

Related Articles

Back to top button

Adblock Detected

Please consider supporting us by disabling your ad blocker