First IPL Chairman Lalit Modi reveals untold truths about Dawood Ibrahim, cricket and leaving India

Lalit Modi. (Source -Twitter/X)

One of the key architects of India’s biggest cricket carnival aka the Indian Premier League (IPL) was none other than Lalit Modi. After having established the initial bricks for the moment which defined the Indian cricket years ahead, the first chairman of the franchise cricket league and a business tycoon left the country in May 2010.

However, even to date the circumstances which led Modi to this taking this major decision remained under the carpet. Recently, the founder of the IPL came to the fore to reveal some lesser-known facts about his decision to leave the nation. Recently, Lalit Modi got into an unfiltered conversation with the renowned social media influencer and podcaster, Raj Shamani, to break his silence on the matter. While talking on his show, he made a rather astonishing revelation. Lalit Modi claimed that his life was under threat and it came from the underworld lynchpin, Dawood Ibrahim.

“I did leave the country! When there was a death threat to me!” said Modi in Shamani’s podcast ‘Figuring Out’.

Furthermore, talking on the entire backdrop of how he finally arrived at making the big decision, Modi unearthed the facts about his departure at the airport. He stated that his personal bodyguard had advised him to take the flight from the VIP zone which was the backside of the airport instead of going out the way usually a passenger will do. But things went south to the extent that the then-concerned security authorities ended up informing him that Modi was on a hitlist and at max, the security for him could be provided for the next 12 hours.

“When I arrived, I saw Himanshu Roy, the Deputy Commissioner of Police, waiting for me. He told me, we cannot protect you anymore. There is a hit on your life, and we can only ensure your safety for the next 12 hours. They could only protect me from the airport to the Four Seasons Hotel in Mumbai,” he further stated.

Raj Shamani as he is usually known to do which is to delve deeper into discussing some uncomfortable and hard-hitting facts and nuances of life and other aspects revolving around influential and powerful people, tried to figure out what went wrong with Lalit Modi at that juncture in life. To which, Modi replied that he underwent multiple life-threatening attempts conducted by Dawood. Moreover, he actually maintained a document regarding the attempts to take away his life.

For me, anti-corruption was a very big part of my thing: Modi

Unearthing the reasons behind putting his life in danger, Lalit Modi explained that he had a zero-tolerance policy towards plaguing cricket issues like match fixing and beyond. He made it amply clear that it was against his principles to find corruption plaguing the beautiful game of Cricket.

“Dawood Ibrahim was after me because they were fixing matches and I had a zero policy for match-fixing. For me, anti-corruption was a very big part of my thing, and I thought the integrity of the game was extremely important,” the IPL founder was quoted as saying by the Times of India (TOI).

“Dawood Ibrahim did take strategic shots at me in many places, all of which is documented. These weren’t just empty threats they were genuine, life-threatening attempts that could’ve ended my life. But I stood firm on my principles,” Modi concluded.