Modi gets 5 more days to respond to show cause

Suspended Indian Premier League commissioner Lalit Modi got a breather on Monday after the Board of Control for Cricket in India gave him five more days to respond to the first show cause notice issued to him for alleged financial irregularities.

The BCCI's decision came after Modi sought some documents from the Board to prepare his reply, though he was supposed to respond to the charge sheet by Monday.

"Lalit Modi has requested the Board President (Shashank Manohar) and Secretary (N Srinivasan) to extend time. He was supposed to reply to the show cause notice today. The Board has taken a decision to extend time up to the 15th of May," BCCI Chief Administrative Officer Ratnakar Shetty said.

Shetty's announcement came soon after Modi's lawyer, Memmood S Abdi, handed over the remaining documents pertaining to the IPL, which were with the suspended IPL chief.

Shetty did not reveal the nature of the documents that were handed over to him by Abdi.

"All this is between the Board and Modi. I don't think we need to share it with the media," he said.

Abdi told reporters he handed over to the Board the remaining documents that were with Modi, including minutes of the IPL Governing Council meetings, bid documents, franchisee agreements and all contracts starting from 2008 onwards.

"This is the final phase of handing over of papers to the Board from our side. We had earlier submitted a bigger bulk of papers on the 8th May," Abdi said.

"From our end we have submitted all the papers. The BCCI has not got back to us regarding any more documents as yet. We have retained one copy of whatever documents we have handed over to the Board. These have been endorsed by Shetty on behalf of the Board," Abdi said, adding "the documents handed over to the Board today ran into thousands of pages."

The first set of documents, both original as well as notarised copies, which Modi had submitted earlier included all franchisee agreements, global media rights agreements, global media rights packages, all bid documents, media rights licensee agreements, eligibility letters of bidders with details and sponsorship agreements entered into by IPL.

Asked about the extension of deadline given by the Board to Modi on his request to reply to the first show cause, Abdi said, "There was nothing unusual about it.

"When you reply to a show cause notice each word has to be written appropriately."

Asked when Modi would respond to the second show cause notice that alleged he was planning to start a 'rebel' T20 league in England, Abdi said, "The deadline for the second will end in 15 days from May 6. So there's no hurry to reply to it."

Modi's request for an extension though was surprising as just a couple of days ago he had asserted that he would personally hand over his reply to the BCCI on Monday.

"I will hand over the reply on Monday, there is no doubt about it," he had said.

Modi was suspended on April 26, soon after the conclusion of the IPL III final in Navi Mumbai by BCCI which sent him a show cause notice asking him to reply to a slew of charges relating to the conduct of the high-profile Twenty20 league.

Modi is accused of indulging in murky financial deals without the knowledge of the IPL Governing Council, bid-rigging and taking kickbacks from the TV rights and internet deals.

Modi's problems were compounded when he was slapped with a second show cause notice by the Board for allegedly trying to provoke English counties to revolt against their parent body, the ECB, and start a parallel Twenty20 league.

Once Modi responds to the charges, the board's three-man disciplinary committee, comprising BCCI president Shashank Manohar and two vice-presidents -- Arun Jaitley and Chirayu Amin -- will take over the proceedings.

The panel is expected to meet in mid-June to decide on the matter.