Ex-Indian Premier League (IPL) chairman Lalit Modi has come clean on the fact that he intentionally flexed broadcasting rules during the league's inaugural match in 2008.
The historical opener game involving Kolkata Knight Riders and Royal Challengers Bengaluru set the stage for the tournament, with Modi confessing that he was willing to "break every rule in the book" to make the venture work.
Modi has claimed that fears about the limited coverage of Sony Network—the then-official broadcaster—prompted him to supersede their monopoly rights. In a gutsy move, he directed other broadcasters and even news channels to telecast the match live in conjunction with Sony, placing the highest priority on maximum exposure for the launch of IPL above contractual obligations.
"Everything, everything was dependent on that one game. I broke every rule in the book that day. I signed the contract, an exclusive contract with Sony, but Sony didn't have the reach. I said open the signal. Now it was available everywhere, right? And I told all the broadcasters who lost out, all of you, all news channels, go live," Lalit told Michael Clarke during a recent podcast.
"Sony said 'I'll sue you'. I said 'Sue me later, forget about it? Ok, we are going live now because you don't have the reach'. I needed everybody to watch the first game. If the first game had flopped, I was dead."
Earlier, Lalit Modi found himself in a major controversy once again after he revealed the video of Harbhajan Singh slapping S Sreesanth during IPL 2008. The 'Slapgate' row caused a huge stir at that time but Harbhajan heavily criticised Lalit Modi for revealing the video after such a long time.
"The way the video has been leaked, it's wrong. It shouldn't have happened. They might have a selfish motive behind it. Something that happened 18 years ago, people have forgotten, and they are reminding people about it," Harbhajan told Instant Bollywood".
