The curious case of Lalit Modi
Samanth Subramanian, writing for the Caravan , looks at Lalit Modi – the man in the Armani suit with golden toilet fittings in his private plane, who could go four days without sleep when need be
Nikita Bastian
25-Feb-2013
Samanth Subramanian, writing for the Caravan, looks at Lalit Modi – the man in the Armani suit with golden toilet fittings in his private plane, who could go four days without sleep when need be. He discusses his quirks, business acumen, irrepressible energy levels, steep fall from grace and conceivable disentanglement from the legal issues currently stacked against him.
Modi would sit, either in his own box or in the box of the home team, and mug for the Modicam, the camera deputed to follow him around in each game. He would chant team slogans and sing team songs, the metal rims of his spectacles glinting in the spotlights … But through all these lusty exhibitions of fandom, Modi would be acutely alert to the demands of his positions as IPL commissioner … his eyes always cocked for something going wrong — for an unwanted guest in an exclusive box, or for a brand not getting quite as much play as it had paid for.
If the IPL’s story is unusual, the story of its architect is positively bizarre. With a string of business failures, a personality with all the tenderness of a battering ram, and a host of foes, Modi shouldn’t have been able to build anything nearly as successful as the IPL. Somehow, and very rapidly, he did — and then, just as rapidly, just when he was perched atop the world, he lost it all.
Nikita Bastian is a sub-editor at ESPNcricinfo