‘My Biggest Regret’: IPL founder Lalit Modi on giving BCCI too much power

IPL founder and fugitive billionaire Lalit Modi opens up about his biggest regret, and it centres entirely around the Indian Cricket Board. After the BCCI expelled and banned the creator of the world's richest cricket league over financial irregularities and misconduct following the 2010 edition, Modi said he regretted leaving India without doing certain things that needed to be done at that time. Modi revealed how everyone was jealous of his creation, adding that the cash-rich Indian Premier League wouldn’t have worked if it hadn’t been for him.

“I was cut to size because of many other issues. Everybody was jealous. It wouldn’t have worked if I had not been who I was. The IPL wouldn’t have worked if not for me. Why are you talking to me 17 years later, despite me not being part of the game since then?” Modi said while speaking to Wisden for the Scoop Extended.

"It (The idea of IPL) just didn’t come out of thin air. It went through a lot of scientific research and a lot of learnings of mine. Everybody around the world has tried to create what I created and failed. When people say, I made a mistake, I didn’t make a mistake. If I had to ever do this again, it wouldn’t be any different from what I did last time,” he added.

Modi, however, revealed his biggest regret was handing too much power to the BCCI over the IPL, which now rules this world of T20-based franchise leagues. Even though most of the Test-playing nations now have their own franchise T20 leagues, none compares to the IPL, whose valuation is approximately $18bn (INR 1.63 lakh crores).

“I regretted the fact that I left India without doing certain things that had to be done. The founder of the IPL should always get a seat on the board of the league. I gave too much power to the BCCI,” Modi said.

“I could have dictated at the time what I wanted because everybody thought it’s gonna fail. They didn’t really care about it; I had already written the constitution of a separate company being formed. Obviously, BCCI would continue to get the money, but the governance of the league should have been in partnership with the IPL owners along with the BCCI,” he concluded.

Meanwhile, the BCCI successfully hosted the 18th edition of the Indian Premier League, with the Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) defending its IPL crown. The RCB beat the Gujarat Titans (GT) in the IPL 2026 final in Ahmedabad.