Indian minister denies wrongdoing in IPL cricket scandal

CRICKET: NEW DELHI, April 17, 2010: An Indian minister Friday denied any wrongdoing in a scandal over the ownership of an Indian Premier League cricket team as the government struggled for an answer to the week-long controversy.

Shashi Tharoor, a former high-flying UN official, has been at the centre of a storm since Sunday when news broke that a female friend had been granted a free stake worth 15 million dollars in a new IPL franchise.

Indian media reported that the woman, based in Dubai, was Tharoor’s girlfriend.

Tharoor put together the consortium that bought the Kochi team, in Kerala, the southern state he represents in the parliament, and the opposition accused him of securing the stake for his friend as a “consideration” for his services.

In a statement in parliament, repeatedly adjourned because of angry shouting by the opposition, Tharoor said he had “not benefited, and do not intend to benefit, in any way financially from my association with the team now or at a later stage.”He said his conduct had been “within the bounds of appropriate conduct for a member of parliament ... and a member of the union council of ministers.”

Tharoor has held talks with his party boss, Sonia Gandhi, and briefed senior government ministers over the past week, but media interest and pressure from the opposition shows no sign of abating.

The suave, debonair Tharoor, a junior foreign minister and also a successful author, has refused to bow to opposition demands to resign.

Details of the Kochi franchise were revealed by the IPL chief Lalit Modi on microblogging website Twitter, leading to public row between the two men.

With interest mounting in the ownership of other teams, income tax officials raided the offices of the IPL umbrella organisation on Thursday.

Tharoor spent almost three decades in the United Nations before quitting in 2007, and was elected as a Congress MP from Thiruvananthapuram, capital of Kerala, last year.

The IPL is a heady mix of sport and showbiz featuring teams made up of international stars and Indians who play a shortened format of the game, drawing capacity crowds across the country.

-AFP