Was Dawood Ibrahim planning to take over the IPL? Bomba Lalit Modi claims

Former Indian Premier League commissioner Lalit Modi has claimed that sustained, life-threatening intimidation by underworld don Dawood Ibrahim and his syndicate was one of the main reasons why he permanently retired from cricket administration. In an explosive interview with news agency ANI, the founder of India’s multibillion-dollar T20 tournament described a series of alleged extortion attempts, assassination plots and a dramatic late-night confrontation involving a satellite phone call directly to a fugitive gangster.

Lalit Modi, who is currently living in London after leaving India in 2010 amid financial and administrative investigations, he stated that his refusal to assist illegal betting networks made him a primary target of the D-Company syndicate.

According to Modi, the most direct confrontation occurred in London in 2012. He claimed he was contacted at 3:30 in the morning by a London-based fixer who pressured him to visit a loft belonging to a well-connected middleman known as “Baba”.

Upon his arrival, the middleman reportedly went out to the terrace, dialed Dawood Ibrahim’s phone number on a satellite phone and put the fugitive on speakerphone to confront Modi.

“I pissed my pants, I’ll tell you that. No doubt. Right there and then,” Lalit Modi told ANI, adding that he had the British security service MI5 stationed downstairs at the time.

“He just says, ‘Abhi se tumhara sab kaam khatam’ (From now on, all your work is done) and hangs up.”

Modi claimed that the meeting opened the floodgates to weekly phone calls from the middleman demanding financial compensation and claiming that the underworld wanted control of the IPL franchise. The syndicate reportedly claimed that Modi owed them because his administrative decisions cost them a lot in the underground betting markets (satta bazar).

SOUTH AFRICA COMMUTER

According to Modi, the underworld’s hostility towards him came to a head during the second season of the IPL in 2009. Due to a planned clash with the Indian general elections, Lalit Modi suddenly initiated the shifting of the entire tournament to South Africa.

This sudden relocation, he claims, has thrown the massive underground betting market into utter chaos. Syndicated bookmakers have reportedly placed massive bets on the tournament being cancelled.

“They accused me of shifting the IPL to South Africa when they thought it would never move because they ate up the stakes,” Modi said.

“So they obviously lost a lot of money. They wanted me to make the money. I didn’t ask them to take the bet.”

Modi claimed that his tough anti-corruption stance during his tenure as IPL chairman (2008–2010) further angered the mafia. He claimed to be actively blocking spot fixes, banning suspicious individuals from stadiums and refusing hundreds of millions of dollars in bribes to look the other way.

The resulting friction against him reportedly triggered a series of coordinated strikes on several continents. Modi cited the shootout outside his residence in Mumbai, the aborted strike in Johannesburg that was flagged by the South African government, and another plot intercepted on the Croatian border. He even claimed to have attempted to kidnap his son on Sloane Street in London.

DECISION TO QUIT CRICKET

When asked how he was finally removed from the active hit list of the underworld, Modi revealed that his exit from the sport was the ultimate negotiation. He claimed that the syndicate eventually aired a live statement declaring that their issues with him had been resolved.

“I didn’t solve it,” Modi explained. “I just said I’m going to quit cricket. I gave my word. I’m going to retire.”

Asked specifically if Dawood Ibrahim was the driving force behind his complete withdrawal from the cricketing world, Modi said: “It is one of the biggest reasons.”

ENTRY AND DEPARTURE OF THE ARCHITECT IPL

As the first chairman and commissioner of the IPL, Lalit Modi was widely credited with revolutionizing the global cricket economy by bringing together sport, Bollywood glamor and strong corporate backing into the highly lucrative T20 format.

However, his spectacular rise was cut short in April 2010. Immediately after the end of the third season of the IPL, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) suspended Modi for various financial irregularities, structural mismanagement and bid rigging.

By the time the BCCI set up its internal disciplinary committee, Modi had left India for the UK, citing huge security threats to his life. In 2013, after an extensive internal investigation, the BCCI banned him for life from holding any post in cricket administration in India.

While Indian law enforcement agencies have spent more than a decade investigating him for alleged financial irregularities and passport violations, Modi has consistently maintained that his departure from India and his subsequent exit from the game were fundamentally forced by the shadows of the Mumbai underworld.

– The end

Published on:

04 Jun 2026 16:46 IST