Modi Operandi: the real Mr Cricket

More than a decade ago Lalit Modi tried to launch an officially sanctioned professional cricket league but was thwarted by what he describes as "vested interests" in Indian cricket. Today, he's the chairman and commissioner of the first officially sanctioned multi-million dollar cricket league, the Indian Premier League. In an interview to the Sydney Morning Herald, Matt Wade profiles the man who helped turn the BCCI into one of the richest sporting organisations in the world, with an annual revenue of more than $1 billion. Modi also talks extensively of the IPL and how it was conceived after extensive research.

Modi works from the plush Mumbai offices of Modi Enterprises, the industrial conglomerate owned by his family. Founded in 1933, the group has interests in agro-chemicals, tobacco, tea and beverages, education, entertainment and marketing. Casually dressed and sitting on a large lounge chair, he flicked the channels of an enormous plasma TV, ignoring the constant buzzing of his palm pilot.