Shashi Tharoor: The secret owner of the IPL Kochi team

An open war between Shashi Tharoor and IPL Chief, Lalit Modi, over the ownership of the IPL Kochi team caught the media attention. Controversies are now rising around them as they are blaming each other. Fans are yet to know the real reason behind this controversy. This incident spread out through a series of Twitter messages posted by Lalit Modi on Sunday. These messages revealed the owners of the IPL Kochi team and their stakes.

Shashi Tharoor, current Minister of State for External Affairs, was not included in the owners list. It is said that he invested money indirectly with the help of a Dubai based businesswoman, Sunanda Pushkar. However, he denied it and said that he neither invited nor received money as mentor of the Kochi team.

Who is Sunanda Pushkar? She is the friend of Mr. Tharoor. Rumor spread out that Shashi Tharoor and Sunanda Pushkar are going to get married pretty soon.

Naturally the question arises- Why did Lalit Modi send out these messages? He had to do it because many people were asking about the shareholders and events surrounding the Kochi team. Tharoor said that Modi is trying to discredit the Kochi team and disqualify the team so that it can be awarded to another city. According to his speech, the IPL Kochi team was sold to Rendezvous Sports World Limited for $333m in an “open and transparent" auction that took place in Madras last month.

It is not sure who is guilty. Lalit Modi told senior cricket officials that Mr. Tharoor called him and asked him not to disclose the name of the Kochi team shareholders. However, Tharoor denied the claim. He said that he had called Modi to find out the reason of denying the approval of the franchise.

There are many reasons to get connection between Mr Tharoor and IPL Kochi team. This team is based in Kerala which is also the home of Mr Tharoor.

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BBC