Lalit Modi is working on a new sports league. Speaking on The Overlap Cricket podcast with Michael Vaughan, the former Indian Premier League chairman said he is working on a sports league he believes will be the next big thing in the world.
Modi is currently in London, following his exile from the Indian Premier League. He has been in the news for the past few years for his outlandish and hard-hitting claims on the sports ecosystem.
Modi revealed in the podcast that he is betting on combat sports to expand in the next few years. He said he is working on a league that he believes will be much more successful than the Ultimate Fighting Championship promoted by Dana White.
The UFC is currently said to be worth $12 billion and is one of the most successful sports leagues in the world. However, Modi claimed that Dana White does not know what he is doing because the league is worth much more.
Modi suggested that the UFC was doing it wrong and that he could improve the whole thing. This is what Lalit Modi’s chat with Michael Vaughan looked like.
Q: What sports league would you like to own outside of cricket?
A. I would create a global MMA.
Question: Really? But Dana White is doing it now, right?
A. Yeah, I think America doesn’t know how to do that. It should be intercity. It should be intercity. It is worldwide. He doesn’t know how to do it. I created the IPL in one day and it was worth billions before I created it. I’m working on something.
Q: Why fight?
A. Because it is the oldest sport in the world. Combat sport is the oldest sport in the world.
The Rise and Fall of LALIT MODI
When Lalit Modi conceptualized the Indian Premier League in 2007, Indian cricket was already financially strong but structurally conservative. Bilateral series and ICC events dominated the calendar. Modi envisioned something radically different, a city-based, franchised T20 league that combined the sport with entertainment, private investment and primetime television.
The timing was impeccable. The success of the inaugural ICC World Twenty20 2007, where a young Indian side lifted the trophy, had already fueled a national appetite for the shortest format. Modi moved fast. Within months, he convinced the Board of Control for Cricket in India to back the league, sold franchises to corporate heavyweights and secured lucrative broadcast deals.
The first season of the IPL in 2008 was a cultural and commercial phenomenon. Packed stadiums, cheerleaders, Bollywood ownership and high-octane cricket have turned the league into a nightly spectacle. Teams like Chennai Super Kings and Mumbai Indians quickly became household names, while relatively unknown players turned into overnight stars. The league’s auction system, salary caps and emphasis on youth have created a new cricket economy.
At the center of it all was Modi. As the founding commissioner of the IPL, he had extensive powers, negotiating deals, setting rules and managing expansion. Under his watch, the league’s valuation skyrocketed, becoming one of the richest sports properties in the world in less than three years.
But the same centralized governance that fueled the IPL’s rapid rise also laid the groundwork for Modi’s downfall.
In 2010, questions about governance, transparency and financial transactions began to emerge. The flashpoint came during the Kochi franchise dispute, where Modi made public the ownership details that set off a political firestorm. The fallout drew the attention of the Indian government and tax authorities, exposing alleged irregularities in bidding processes, broadcasting rights and franchise ownership structures.
Within weeks, Modi was suspended by the BCCI. An internal investigation accused him of misconduct, financial impropriety and breach of the board’s code of conduct. In 2013, he was formally banned for life by the BCCI, effectively ending his role in the league he created.
Modi left India soon after and settled in London, although investigations by agencies such as the Enforcement Directorate continued for years. Although he consistently denied wrongdoing, his exile marked one of the most dramatic downfalls of Indian sports administration.
However, despite his ouster, the IPL not only survived but thrived. The structure Modi created has proven durable and has evolved into a global template for franchise leagues across sports.
This duality defines his legacy. Modi remains both the architect of modern cricket’s most successful league and the man who lost control of it at its peak, a rise fueled by vision and ambition and a fall shaped by the very excesses that made it possible.
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– The end
Issued by:
Kingshuk Kusari
Published on:
16 Apr 2026 18:31 IST
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