IPL 2024 factoids: Lalit Modi & the beginnings of the Indian Premier League

Lalit Modi had wanted to start an NBA-style sporting event, but for cricket, in India. In the 1990s, his entertainment company had got the rights for ESPN in India, and he gauged that there would be an audience for this type of league. (File image: Reuters)

The idea behind a league of such epic proportions as the Indian Premier League (IPL) came to Lalit Modi in the 1990s. Modi had gone to Duke University in North Carolina, where he was arrested for trafficking cocaine and using a weapon with intent to kill. He got a suspended two-year prison sentence and five years of community service. He returned to India after furnishing a USD 50,000 bond and inherited his family business.

Modi had seen the National Basketball Association (NBA) during his days in the USA. He wanted to create a similar competition in India, but in cricket. T20 was not born yet, so Modi wanted a 50-over tournament.

The logic was sound. Day-night cricket had been a roaring success at the 1996 World Cup. The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) were hosting more of it. At the same time, cable television was spreading its wings in India in the 1990s. In 1994, his Modi Entertainment Networks had become the official distributor of ESPN in India for ten years. He knew the viewership ratings.

He wanted cricket to replace soaps and movies and news and win the prime-time slot in the one television set most Indian families owned.

So, in the 1990s, Lalit Modi submitted a proposal to the BCCI, of a cricket tournament that was nothing like cricket had known. There would be city-based, privately owned teams featuring Indian and foreign cricketers. The 50-over matches would be played under lights and have extensive television coverage. The entertainment would last four to six weeks a year.

The BCCI was not convinced by the astronomical amounts mentioned in the proposal. Nor was it keen on ‘sharing’ cricket. The idea of selling to private organisations did not appeal to the BCCI.

By the time Modi relaunched his idea in 2007, two things had happened. First, Modi had found his way inside the BCCI and climbed very close to the top. And secondly, there had been an outside threat.

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