Issues with Mumbai Cricket Association will be resolved soon: Lalit Modi

Reacting to reports that miffed Mumbai Cricket Association (MCA) officials, including president Sharad Pawar, will boycott the Indian Premier League's (IPL) opening ceremony, IPL chairman Lalit Modi today said that the issue will be sorted out by this evening.

"We would like our friends in the MCA to join us. They wanted a certain number of tickets for the IPL matches which were given to them, but, unfortunately, they wanted tickets for all of the Mumbai matches," Modi said at a press conference here today.

"All the Mumbai matches are in control of the franchise owners and CCI, and we are trying to facilitate that. MCA is a very important member of the BCCI and we would want our members to be happy," he said.

"I'm sure that the problem will be sorted out by this evening," he added.

Modi said the reason Pawar was likely to miss IPL's opening ceremony was due to his Parliamentary commitments.

"I spoke to Pawar this morning. There is a vote in the Parliament at 5 or 6pm this evening. I'm sure he's going to try very hard. But there is a trust vote in the Parliament. What happens there is something we'll have to wait and see," he said.

Earlier, MCA joint secretary Lalchand Rajput said that, MCA's managing committee had decided to boycott the IPL opener as they had not received any invitation to attend it.