BCCI bigwigs boycott IPL awards night

The stars came out but the heavyweights stayed away from the Indian Premier League (IPL) awards night on Friday.

The powers-that-be of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), for obvious reasons, boycotted the event. Lalit Modi, the under-fire chairman of the IPL, was the only official from the current dispensation of the BCCI present there.

BCCI president Shashank Manohar, secretary N Srinivasan and chief administrative officer Ratnakar Shetty were among those who skipped the event.

IPL vice-chairman Niranjan Shah, too, was conspicuous by his absence. Obviously, none of them wanted to be seen alongside Modi, who has declared war against the BCCI bosses.

Among the administrative bigwigs  to attend were IS Bindra, a former board president known to be a close associate of Modi, and Sunil Gavaskar, a paid member of the IPL governing council.

The BCCI officials were, however, unwilling to admit it was a boycott. “It was not a boycott. We thought that such nights are unwanted. There are parties every night with liquor flowing in torrents. These things are not necessary,” one board official said.

Besides the top brass, many representatives from state associations, invited for the last three days of the IPL, did not attend the awards function. But the BCCI said it had not given any instructions to the state representatives.

The board officials are still undecided over attending the final on Sunday. “A couple of days are still left for the final,” said the BCCI functionary. “We might go.”