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Lalit Modi, the founder of the Indian Premier League (IPL) and former vice-president of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), has made serious allegations against ex-cricket administrator N Srinivasan and his co-owned franchise Chennai Super Kings (CSK). Notably, the latter has served as International Cricket Council chairman and BCCI president in the past. While making startling revelations in a recent interview, Modi said that the IPL governing body did "bid rigging" during auction for the second edition to make sure Andrew Flintoff went to CSK. He added that this was done in order to fulfil the wish of Srinivasan. Modi also alleged Srinivasan and CSK of "indirect fixing".
"Pick out everything-auction rigging. I gave Flintoff to Srinivasan. Yes, we did it. No doubts about it; every team knew about it. Srinivasan wasn't going to let the IPL happen. He was a thorn in our Board. Yes, we told everybody not to pick (Andrew) Flintoff. Yes, that I did-because Srinivasan said 'I want Flintoff'," Lalit Modi mentioned," said Lalit Modi on Raj Shamani's YouTube podcast.
"When everybody started going on the bandwagon, he was also a member of the board. He was a big adversary of mine. I went up against him, and he did many things. Umpire fixing-he accused me of it, and I accused him right back. He would change the umpire. At first, I didn't think much about it. But when I realized he was putting a Chennai umpire on a Chennai game, it became an issue for me. That's called indirect fixing. When I started exposing those things, he went totally against me", Modi claimed.
Notably, CSK have won a record-equalling five IPL titles. They bagged the honours in the years - 2010, 2011, 2018, 2021 and 2023. The team served a two-year ban (2016 and 2017) after their involvement in a spot-fixing and betting scandal.