Former Indian Premier League (IPL) commissioner Lalit Modi has alleged that he was forced to quit cricket administration after receiving threats from fugitive underworld don Dawood Ibrahim. The 62-year-old claimed that three “hits” were ordered against him and alleged that his son was kidnapped in London.
“It is one of the biggest reasons. He (Dawood) took three hits at me. Dawood himself said this. He missed three times. The reason was that I didn’t look the other way when they wanted to fix matches. They offered me hundreds of millions of dollars to look the other way. If you look at the first three years, when I ran the IPL, there was no fixing. It wasn’t liked by the mafia,” Modi told ANI.
Modi claimed he was targeted because he refused to allow match-fixing and betting interests to influence the IPL, alleging that criminal syndicates lost money when the tournament was successfully relocated to South Africa. The comments come years after IPL 2009 was moved from India to South Africa due to security concerns during the general elections, a decision that was overseen by him as league commissioner.
“But the main reason is that they believed that I would not be able to do IPL 2 (IPL 2009). Big bets were taken that IPL 2 will not happen… Bombay police recorded everything. Bombay police put me on Z security… There was a shootout outside my house in Bombay. There was a hit for me in Johannesburg when I was in Cape Town, which was picked up by the South African government,” he added.
#WATCH | On being asked if he retired from cricket because of Dawood Ibrahim, IPL founder and first chairman Lalit Modi says, “It is one of the biggest reasons.”
He says, “He took three hits at me… Dawood himself said this… He missed three times… The reason was that I… pic.twitter.com/HKYlhdL2o6
— ANI (@ANI) June 4, 2026
Modi further claimed that in 2012, he received a call at around 3.30 am from a London-based individual associated with IPL circles, who asked him to meet a person identified only as “Baba”.
“There was a hit on me in Montenegro, which was picked up at the Croatian border. My son was kidnapped in London. I have not told this story to anybody. I get a call at 3.30 in the morning by a man you see around all the IPL matches. He’s around politicians. He’s a London-based guy… He’s a fixer-dealer type of guy. He says you have to come and meet this guy Baba right now. I go to Baba’s penthouse with back-to-back paintings of (MF) Hussain. He told me he wants an IPL team. I told him I have a Dawood problem. He said let me fix it in a minute. It was all orchestrated by them,” he said.
Modi claimed he agreed to the meeting, during which “Baba” allegedly contacted Dawood Ibrahim using a satellite phone.
“He goes on his terrace, takes out his satellite phone and calls Dawood on the phone. I pissed in my pants. This happened in 2012. I don’t know where Dawood was when I spoke to him on the phone. It’s a recorded statement of mine,” he said.
“Dawood said (in an interview), we have resolved issues with Lalit Modi. I didn’t. I just said that I will retire from cricket. I gave my word…” Modi added.
Modi further said that “Baba” was a friend of his and was seen everywhere around the globe.
“Then this Baba was seen everywhere. He’s a man of the world. I’m having dinner one day with Shaukat Aziz, Prime Minister of Pakistan… An India-Pakistan match was taking place at the World Series in Birmingham… He is a good friend of mine…” Modi added.
Despite being widely credited with conceptualising and launching the IPL, Modi’s tenure ended in controversy. The BCCI suspended him in 2010 over alleged financial and procedural irregularities and later handed him a lifetime ban from cricket administration. Modi has denied the allegations and maintained that the action against him was politically motivated.
