The Invincible Modi!

Been hearing tons about him but, after listening to his inaugural address of the IPL -2 yesterday I should admit that I was quite impressed.

Lalit Kumar Modi, (born November 29, 1963) is the Chairman and Commissioner of Indian Premier League, Chairman of Champions League, President and Managing director Modi Enterprises, former President of the Rajasthan Cricket Association, Vice President of BCCI, Vice President of Punjab Cricket Association, Executive Director of Godfrey Philips India and Director of Various Modi Group Companies. - Wiki

With that impressive list to back him up obviously he would be the aggressive, sharp, brash, ruthless and reviled leader as he is often fondly described as. However he DID manage to MOVE the IPL lock stock and barrel from India to the SA in under a month thanks to THIS attitude. The Move overall is very impressive and commendable - a mammoth achievement.

Maybe a loss to many advertisers, brand managers and event managers in India and ofcourse a pinch on the purse for the IPL owners but everything is not lost YET! Some profits may arise after all - after the successful launch yesterday.

Some of the salient features that bowled me over:

- The overall MOVE fighting the bureaucratic government policies and going against the norms of committees and fundas of reporting.

- Direct and immediate decision -actions must have taken place for the massive MOVE

- Proper security Measures in place

- Impressing the SA govt. into QUICK action - imagine impressing a foreign govt. to ACT fast

- Venue Management - proper grounds, entry tickets and security management

- Retaining the good will of the international players - convincing them to re-join their teams - although the money factor would have played a key role, people like Kevin Pieterson needed some goading to join in this year - (goading to go home?)

- Organising the inaugural function - the entire show and I'm sure the closing ceremoney is planned too.

- Back up plans to fill in the on the rainy cricket days! Wow today we saw some Three Tons of Fun sisters singing to the galley...

- The BOLD decision to ban the Pakistan players from playing in the IPL - almost a death statement as it turned out but nobody concerned seems to be batting even an eyelid!

The easiest thing for Modi would have been to block flight tickets and ferry the cricketers from all over the world to SA! Well thanks to him we have loads of cricket for the next month to watch and enjoy!

Three cheers to IPL and Kudos to Modi!