Lalit Modi called Dawood Ibrahim the biggest bookie
Former Indian Premier League (IPL) commissioner Lalit Modi, who has been living abroad after leaving India for a long time, has once again come into the limelight. He says he is not running away anywhere. It is impossible to roam anywhere without escaping from a global superpower country like India. Lalit also claimed that the biggest reason behind his decision to retire from cricket was the many death threats he received from underworld don Dawood Ibrahim and his henchmen. Due to his strictness, relations with the underworld had deteriorated greatly.
In an interview with news agency ANI, Lalit Modi revealed for the first time that the alleged death threats he received from Dawood Ibrahim and his crime syndicate forced him to decide to retire from cricket administration forever. He told that his tough stance against match-fixing in the initial years of IPL was directly impacting the billion-dollar illegal betting empire of ‘D Company’.
‘Feelings change on every ball’
The former cricket administrator also claimed that the syndicate runs a huge “betting market” where betting prices keep changing with every ball. He said, “Dawood Ibrahim himself is a big bookie. He used to control cricket betting. At that time there used to be around $2 billion of illegal betting. Today, it is around $4 billion of illegal betting on every match.”
He said, “This is a huge figure. It is unimaginably huge. On every ball, there is a chance of betting. This is a betting market. Now no one fixes the entire match. Now overs are fixed. Balls are fixed.”
‘Fixing means for secret signals’
Referring to spot-fixing, Lalit Modi explained how bookies target a particular ball or over through secret gestures on the field, adding, “We don’t even realize when fixing has taken place. It has become too complex. Like someone takes out a handkerchief, someone rubs something from the other side, and that is a signal. Also, we keep an eye on these signals. We try to understand these signals.” Let’s do it.”
The former cricket administrator claimed that he kept a strict eye on these things and had refused to cooperate in the bookie’s case, hence he had become the target of the mafia. He said, “If you see the first three years, when I ran the IPL, there was no fixing. I taught a lesson to many people. I threw many people out of the stadium. I banned the entry of many people. But this strictness was not liked by the people associated with the mafia.”
‘A middleman named Baba got Dawood talked to’
Lalit also claimed that he had rejected huge bribe offers. He says, “They offered me millions of dollars to turn a blind eye.” Recalling the events of 2012, Lalit Modi recounted an incident in which a fixer from London had arranged a late night meeting at the penthouse of a powerful middleman named ‘Baba’. During this meeting, the middleman allegedly called Dawood Ibrahim directly through a satellite phone from his terrace and he put the phone on speaker, in order to put pressure on him to get an IPL franchise for the syndicate.
Lalit Modi, who has left India and is living abroad for a long time, said, “I have not told this story to anyone till now. I got a call at 3:30 in the morning. He (the fixer) said, ‘You have to come and meet this man, Baba. And you have to come immediately.’ I thought maybe there would be something important. So I went to Baba’s house. There he (Baba) said, ‘You have left India, we want a team in IPL.’
‘My son was kidnapped from London’
He said, “I said that I am not even in India. Why do you want an IPL team? Whoever wants to go and buy a team from anyone, should go and buy it. Besides, I am not going back to India either. Dawood has a problem there. To which he said, ‘I will fix it in a minute.'”
Lalit further said, “The middleman then went to his terrace, took out a satellite phone, and allegedly dialed Dawood Ibrahim directly. Baba says, ‘Dawood Bhai, Lalit Bhai has come. Talk to him.’ I said I will not talk. So he put the call on speaker mode. I again said, I will not talk. In such a situation, he (Dawood) just said, ‘You are our friend, forget everything, now everything is fine.'”
He revealed that his refusal triggered a massive wave of retaliation across the world, leading to the intervention of law enforcement agencies. He said, “Mumbai Police had recorded everything. This information was received from Mumbai Police itself. Mumbai Police gave me Z-security. Although I had not demanded it. I suddenly got Z category security. There was firing outside my house in Mumbai. There was a conspiracy to attack me in Johannesburg. I was in Cape Town, information about which was received by the South African government. There was a conspiracy to attack me in Montenegro too, “Which was detected on the Croatian border itself.” He further said, “My son was kidnapped from Sloane Street in London. A man named Baba Avin kidnapped him. He lived on Park Street.”
‘Enmity with the underworld has increased’
The former IPL chief also claimed that his enmity with the underworld increased a lot when he shifted the second season of IPL to South Africa. Because of this, the work of big betting syndicates got spoiled, who had bet on the fact that this tournament would not take place.
He accused me of shifting the IPL to South Africa because he thought it would go nowhere, but all his claims were proved wrong, so he lost a lot of money. That’s why they wanted me to compensate them for that money. Although I never asked him to make such a bet. That’s why I had nothing to do with it.”
Lalit Modi claimed that this dangerous conflict was resolved only when another big henchman of the syndicate, Chhota Shakeel, told in a live interview that the underworld had resolved all its disputes with Lalit. When asked which issue was finally resolved, Lalit clarified that his own personal guarantee of completely staying away from the game saved his life. (Chhota Shakeel) said that we have resolved all our issues with Lalit Modi. I just said that I will retire from cricket. I had promised that I would retire. This was one of the biggest reasons for moving away from cricket. Why would I put myself under media pressure, government pressure and then life-threatening pressure?”
