New book on N Srinivasan, Lalit Modi's role in IPL hits the market

NEW DELHI: The seventh edition of IPL may have ended without major controversies but those with an urge to know more about how the league spread its wings over the last seven years can get hold of a new book that has hit the market recently.

Journalist Alam Srinivas' book, 'Cricket Czars: Two men who changed gentleman's game', chronicles events over the last seven years about how Lalit Modi and N Srinivasan ran the cash-rich league since its inception.

A business journalist, who is now executive editor of the the magazine 'India Legal', has split the book into two parts. The first part is on Srinivasan while the second part of the 253-page book is on IPL's founder Modi.

The readers will get a peek into the makings of both the sports administrators and has tried to objectively point out their mode of operation while being at the helm of the richest sporting body in India and running its most marquee product.

In the Srinivasan part, one will find some extensive coverage of the Tamil Nadu strongman's early days in business at the India Cements. His strained relationship with his own brother - the current IOA supremo N Ramachandran, which led to the latter's exit from the company after he sold his stake for a whopping amount.

It also reveals interesting facts about Srinivasan's faith in the words of his spiritual guru Dr Karthikeyan Venkatesan.

On Page 69 of the book, the author claims to have spoken to a member of the Delhi Daredevils and revealed the differences in the make-up of the two dressing rooms at the Chepauk on the insistence of a vedic expert.

"The pillars, mirrors, sandalwood and kumkum would suck out rival team's strength as well as its positive energies. It would help CSK win," a member of an IPL franchise stated as per the author's claim.

On Page 71, the author claimed that an e-mail sent by Venkatesan to Srinivasan prior to CSK's final against Mumbai Indians at the Eden Gardens in 2013 was forwarded to skipper MS Dhoni.

The e-mail had "several things that Dhoni, team management and team owners should do to ensure victory."

The author further wrote, "Venkatesan felt that the Nakshatra was unfriendly to Dhoni and therefore, before the finals, special prayers had to be offered to several deities in various temples. Elaborate list of offerings were mentioned in the e-mail."

On the second part of the book the author deals with Modi's entry into cricket administration and how the concept of IPL took shape.

Although the author couldn't get quotes from Modi, he had extensively spoken to his father K K Modi. According to Modi senior, his son's "latest passion is Paan Express".

Modi senior doesn't want his son to get back into BCCI or IPL matters.

The author wrote that the father felt that "his son could contribute much to family's business rather than fight other cricket czars".

The author describes Modi as a "combination of two sets of personal traits - brilliant and positive and the other, negative and blunder-prone. All his business deals starts with bang, a boom, and end up in chaos and leads largely towards confusion and his character assassination."