IPL's Lalit Modi accuses ECB's Giles Clarke of personal vendetta

Lalit Modi, the suspended IPL commissioner, has accused the ECB chairman, Giles Clarke, of pursuing a personal vendetta against him when he wrote to the Indian board claiming that Modi was plotting to introduce a rebel Twenty20 league in England. Modi's impassioned defence against Clarke's allegations – leaked to the cricket website CricInfo – entirely overshadowed last night's relaunch of England's own Twenty20 competition, a less lucrative rival to the much-hyped Indian Premier League. Clarke wrote to the Indian board last month accusing Modi of plotting to "destroy world cricket's structure" by creating a rebel Twenty20 league in England after the ECB chairman was informed that representatives of the Test match counties had met Modi for exploratory discussions in Delhi at the end of March. Colin Graves, the chairman of Yorkshire and spokesman for the Test match counties group, rubbished talk of secret deals, but Modi, who has also been instructed by the BCCI to answer several charges of financial irregularities, was immediately given a show-case notice ordering him to answer Clarke's charges. Modi retorts in a 7,000-word reply: "It is well known in informed cricketing circles that Mr Clarke holds a personal grudge against me … Mr Clarke and I have had a past history of disagreement and discord … It is absolutely clear that the allegations of Mr Clarke are clearly a deliberate over-reaction, motivated by his personal animus against me." Modi then recaps familiar incidents which he depicts as a misguided attempt by Clarke to challenge India's supremacy in world cricket. He says: "Unfortunately for Mr. Clarke, the events that unfolded, portrayed him in poor light. He was also facing dissent within the English cricket establishment. The nine clubs representing the counties having grounds which stage international cricket were particularly affected. "Mr Clarke regarded me as being the cause for his problems and embarrassment and as his bête noire. The email, dated 02/05/2010, needs to be seen in this light as his attempt to get back at me when an opportunity presented itself. "The allegation that some kind of clandestine initiative to undermine the authority of the ECB was being undertaken by counties behind the back of the ECB is totally false. Mr Clarke was kept in the loop by the nine counties who in fact held discussions with him on 28th April 2010 in England. The most interesting side issue is Modi's remark that he had advised upon what factors were "absolutely imperative" if Twenty20 cricket had to succeed in the UK. One of them he named was "full player availability". England's Twenty20 relaunches this week without England's Test squad – or, for that matter, without any top Indian players, who have also been barred from, taking part. In the Daily Telegraph, Modi is bullish about his position and about the IPL. "I am not the type to give up and walk away," he says. "I don't want to go down that path [legal action] until it is necessary to do that but we will take it to the logical conclusion. The IPL is absolutely and totally clean. All the investigations are going on and they have not come up with anything and they are not going to because it is absolutely clean. "I felt it was important to answer every question with documents that showed exactly when and why approvals took place. I also wanted to show who was part of the process and we had 100% everything approved."