Lalit Kumar Modi, born November 29, 1963, Delhi, India became face of Indian Cricket with his multimillion cricketing extravaganza IPL (Indian Premier League).
He was Chairman and Commissioner of the Indian Premier League 2008 to 2010 before being dethroned over controversies on money and tax issue involving bidding and revenue from Matches.
Modi is also the President and Managing Director of Modi Enterprises and the Executive Director of Godfrey Phillips India. Modi Enterprises is an industrial conglomerate created and run by his family.
Modi has been the Executive Director of Godfrey Phillips India since 1992, one of India’s largest tobacco company. The company is jointly promoted by the Modi Enterprises and Philip Morris International.
In 1994, he became the pan-India distributor of ESPN on a 5-year contract. His job was to collect money from the cable operators in India in exchange for them broadcasting ESPN. However, ESPN was having “money issues” and took Modi to court. In 1997 ESPN established its distribution team; before the contract was due to expire in 1999.
Modi’s joint venture with Walt Disney Pictures, called Modi Entertainment Networks (MEN), gave Modi a 10-year contract to distribute Disney’s programmes in India. He also has a joint venture with Fashion TV.
In 2002, he launched an online lottery business in Kerala called Sixo.
He later went into the real estate business in Rajasthan, with a company called Amer Heritage City Construction Pvt Ltd, his wife Minal, is a director.
IPL 3 being the multimillion and high revenue grossing annual event. IPL 4 is expected to much bigger with 94 matches to be played and each match will earn about $5.5 million, which will translate into $517 million. With 80% of this amount being divided among 10 teams, every team would on average earn a little more than $41 million.
