MUMBAI: He has been banned by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) since 2010 and forced to live in exile in London over allegations of financial misappropriation, but the spectre of former IPL czar Lalit Modi continues to hang over the board.
On Saturday — a day when India won the Under-19 World Cup in New Zealand — the Board was faced with the embarrassment of finding its website, bcci.tv, dysfunctional. Sources said the glitch happened because BCCI’s internet domain is still owned by Modi, who had not paid for the renewal in time. The domain was valid from February 2006 to February 2018. The updation date was February 3, 2018.
Since the website is under Modi’s control following a court order, he is believed to have made the payment for renewal after the BCCI approached Modi’s staff in India. The site is now up. TOI spoke to Modi’s lawyer and he said he was not aware of the issue.
“Modi had bought the domain of the website (from website registrars register-.com and namejet.com) in 2006, ownership is still in his name. He continued to own the domain even after being banned by the board and when he fled the country,” the BCCI official said on condition of anonymity.
The internet domain became the subject of a legal dispute in 2014 when BCCI filed a plea in the Bombay high court seeking to get its ownership transferred to itself.