After the success of the Twenty20 IPL tournament, cricket is no longer a game in India. The latest tussle between minister of state for foreign affairs Shahi Tharoor and IPL commissioner Lalit Modi makes it very clear.

When Rendezvous Sports won the franchise for Kochi IPL team, Tharoor's role was reported to be "confined to encouraging the consortium that eventually won the team" (Mint, TOI).

In his statement released today (13 April 2010), Tharoor says the Kochi IPL team can bring great material and psychological benefits to Kerala’s economy and society. I don't understand how the common man benefits from a cricket team that plays entertainment sports for generating cash for itself and its owners. Tharoor adds that he is not going to benefit from his support for the consortium. Is there a case of benefitting someone else using influence and authority? I won't say anything about Lalit Modi because Tharoor has done that enough in his statement.

Following is the verbatim statement of the memeber of Parliament from Thiruvanathapuram on the IPL Kochi team controversy, published on his website (http://tharoor.in) on 13 April 2010:

1. A consortium led by Rendezvous was set up to bid for an IPL team. They approached me for help and guidance. I steered them towards Kerala. Rendezvous includes a number of people, including many I have never met, and Sunanda Pushkar, whom I know well.
2. My role in mentoring the consortium included several conversations with Mr Lalit Modi, who guided us through the process and presented himself as a trusted friend.
3. The consortium bid successfully in an open and transparent process. Their unexpected success upset the plans of a lot of powerful people, who had wanted the franchise to go elsewhere.
4. Various attempts were made by Mr Modi and others to pressure the consortium members to abandon their bid in favour of another city in a different state. Mr Modi raised assorted objections to the bid documents but finally had no choice but to approve them.
5. His extraordinary breach of all propriety in publicly raising issues relating to the composition of the consortium and myself personally is clearly an attempt to discredit the team and create reasons to disqualify it so that the franchise can be awarded elsewhere.
6. Contemptible efforts have been made to drag in matters of my personal life which I do not intend to dignify by commenting on them.
7. However, I deny Mr Lalit Modi’s allegation that I called him during his meeting with investors in the Kochi consortium in Bangalore on Saturday night in order to press him not to question the composition of the consortium.
   I called Mr Modi to ask why he was further delaying the approval of the franchise when all the legal requirements had been fulfilled.. Mr Modi had held up approval by the IPL of the franchisee agreement earlier in the day, by insisting on the reversal of a change in the document that he himself had earlier suggested. This change was made, the consortium members flew to Bangalore and met with Mr Modi after that night’s IPL game for what they had been told would be a routine exercise. Instead, they were submitted to a barrage of questions which led some to suspect that Mr Modi was seeking a further excuse to delay approval. This was the reason for my intervention with Mr Modi. Had he conducted himself in good faith throughout, no call would have been necessary.
8. On the question of my interests in the franchise, I repeat that I am proud to have helped the consortium come to Kerala. I have neither invested nor received a rupee for my mentorship of the team. Whatever my personal relationships with any of the consortium members, I do not intend to benefit in any way financially from my association with the team now or at a later stage.
9. A Kerala IPL team is a dream of many young people in and from the state. It has the potential to bring great material and psychological benefits to Kerala’s economy and society. The unethical efforts that have been made by Mr Modi and others to thwart the Kerala franchise which had been won fair and square in a transparent bidding process are disgraceful. It has been clear for some time that the real motive is to assign this IPL team elsewhere than Kerala. All of us in Kerala hope that the BCCI will not permit statements and activities which seek to discredit the Kerala team before it has even had a chance to prove its worth. The public attempts by Mr Modi to besmirch the consortium in fact bring the IPL itself into disrepute.
10. This statement is issued by me in a personal capacity to respond to the allegations made against me personally.