'Must be a new rule' - Lalit Modi questions BCCI for allowing 'betting investing company' to bid for new IPL team

Just a day after it was confirmed that the CVC Capital has won the bid for the Ahmedabad team, there have been some questions raised in the type of business activities with which they are involved in. It has been pointed to the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) that they have made investments in the betting companies. 

Now, this is quite bad for the reputation of the league and the BCCI itself. As a matter of fact, Lalit Modi, one of the main men behind the first-ever IPL, has had a long and deep history of criticizing BCCI for their work activities and pointed out to fans on Twitter. Apart from this, the league did get into controversy during a 2013 spot-fixing scandal. 

That incident even led to the suspension of the Chennai Super Kings and Rajasthan Royals for two years in 2016 and 2017. The league and the BCCI can’t afford something similar. It is also worth noting that this information was not revealed to the BCCI at the time of making the bids.

The Adani Group might end up getting the Ahmedabad franchise if BCCI leaves CVC Capital

The tweet from Lalit Modi read, “i guess betting companies can buy a @ipl team. must be a new rule. apparently one qualified bidder also owns a big betting company.  what next – does @BCCI not do there homework. what can Anti corruption do in such a case ? #cricket”

For the longest, the Adani Group were favourites along with the RPSG group to get the two teams. RPSG got the Lucknow side with a whopping amount of INR 7090 crores. The CVC Capital bid INR 5625 crore to get the Ahmedabad team. Adani group fell short by INR 525 crores, as they had bid INR 5100 crores. 

According to the reports, CVC Capital Partners is a private equity and investment advisory firm. They have made several investments, a few of them including some betting companies. They have given a huge backing to Tipico, a German gambling company. CVC Capital were going to be the first franchise owners in the IPL who were completely foreign investors. 

In case, BCCI rejects their bid now, it can be expected that the Adani Group will get the Ahmedabad franchise, which was something that was expected.