IPL would continue to flourish sans Modi: Javed Miandad

The crisis over the Indian Premier League notwithstanding, former Pakistan captains Aamir Sohail and Javed Miandad believe the cash-awash Twenty20 event would continue no matter what happens to the fate of its under-fire Commissioner Lalit Modi.

Sohail said he was a bit surprised by ongoing fiasco and said IPL would continue to flourish regardless of who is heading it. "It is hard for me to believe that a person like Lalit Modi who has played a central role in the launch of a multi-million dollar project like the IPL would not have his documents in place and in order," he said.

"I really don't know what is the real position now but one would expect that when you are running such a big league you would have all financial matters under control and documents in place.

"I don't know what is going to happen over the next few days but one thing I am pretty sure that the IPL has become such a big business and cricket venture that it will continue regardless of who is running it," Sohail added.

Beleaguered Modi found himself in a storm after he opened a Pandora's box by revealing the IPL Kochi franchise ownership, which cost union minister Shashi Tharoor his job, while the Income Tax authorities raided IPL office in Mumbai, grilled Modi and shot off a 10-point questionnaire to BCCI.

Allegations of money laundering and betting are also doing the rounds and Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee said all aspects, including the sources and routes of funding of teams, will be thoroughly probed.

Another former captain Miandad, who is also the Director-General of Cricket in PCB, also agreed with Sohail and said he too was surprised by the way things had panned turned out in the last one week.

"All of a sudden there is so much about financial irregularities and no transparency in IPL affairs. It is an internal affair of the Indian Cricket Board and IPL but let us not forget that IPL is more than just a domestic venture it is an international venture with lot of foreign participation," Miandad said.

"The IPL has set trends and I think it will continue no matter what happens now, there is too much money and livelihood of players involved in it now," he added.