Jaipur --Former IPL commissioner Lalit Modi, at the centre of a political storm for securing a written testimony from Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje, seemed to have wielded considerable clout in Rajasthan during Raje’s previous term. He retained full control over the SMS Stadium in Jaipur, a high-revenue earning venue for the Rajasthan Cricket Association (RCA) which entered into out-of-turn MoUs.
Signed documents, letters and government note sheets from 2005 to 2013, accessed by The Indian Express, show that with Lalit Modi at the helm of affairs at RCA, a four-year memorandum of understanding (MoU) to hand over the stadium to RCA exclusively was renewed two years in advance. This ensured that even if there was a regime change in the 2008 assembly polls, the SMS Stadium would continue to be with the RCA, limiting the state government’s access to its premises and revenue.
Soon after taking over as the RCA president, Lalit Modi, in a letter dated August 31, 2005, wrote to the Rajasthan State Sports Council seeking the South Pavilion, first floor of the West Pavilion, empty piece of land on the northeastern side of the stadium exclusively for a period of four years for “renovation and refurbishment of the stadium by making large investments to bring it upto truly international standards”.
He stated that “the stadium had the potential to become one of the finest venues for international one day and test matches for cricket and could generate vast resources for RCA leading to a much greater interest in sports in Rajasthan”.
Four months later, the MoU was signed on December 30, 2005 between the Rajasthan State Sports Council and RCA. It was agreed that the RCA would develop infrastructure facilities for imparting training and other facilities to cricketers of Rajasthan, develop and maintain South Pavilion to international standards, incur all recurring and non-recurring expenditure on development, renovation and refurbishment entirely from RCA resources.
It was also agreed that the RCA would ensure that the playfield and premises were used exclusively and only for coaching/training of players, never for any non-sporting purpose. The RCA was to pay to the Council a match fee to be mutually determined whenever a domestic or international match/fixture was played, and revenue from advertisements was to be shared between the Council and RCA in the ratio of 1:3.
The MoU would have expired on December 31, 2009 but was renewed 29 months in advance on August 8, 2007.
INDIAN EXPRESS
