Does the IPLt20.com registrant name change indicate the exit of Lalit Modi ?

By On April 20, 2010 · 5 Comments

Here is a small piece of interesting information to add more fuel to the recent Lalit Modi – IPL controversy.  IPL20.com is the official website of the Indian Premier League, a cricket  league  championship in India. Lalit Modi is the current chairman of IPL , which comes under BCCI ( Board of Control of Cricket in India).

Two days back, The Hindustan Times broke out a story  “Online, IPL is Modi’s own domain” , which reported that the domain was registered in the name of Modi himself, as the registrant, administrative and even technical contacts. The email contact mentioned was jcherian-mwc@modi.com. Modi.com is owned by Modi Enterprises, the company run by Lalit Modi’s industrialist family. The contact address was 3rd floor, Nirlon House, Mumbai.  Interestingly, there was no mention of either the BCCI or the IPL.

It all started on Twitter when the Hony Secretary of the Rajasthan Cricket Association, Sanjay Dixit ( @dixitsanjay2005) indicated that Lalit Modi is the registered owner of IPL website, iplt20.com

Sanjay asked the question on Twitter regarding who was the registered owner of the website and  also hinted that it was not BCCI. The Tweeters responded with the name of Lalit Modi and Sanjay Dixit through his tweets replied  that it was the correct answer.

Per Sanjay Dixit, the website has a market value of  whooping Rs. 800 crores.  Many have raised questions on why the domain name IPLT20.com is registered under the name of Lalit Modi, instead of BCCI/IPL . This is more interesting when we all know how much money the website makes via online ticket sales of the cricket championship.

The question was  “Why the iplt20.com is not registered on the behalf of BCCI or IPL?”

Now here comes the new twist in the story ;) .  Twitter users   @getme0020 and  @arpitnext broke this story on the twitter for the first time, even before me.

The “Registrant” updated recently the details of whois records of this domain name and the name of registrant has been changed to BCCI/IPL.

According to the website who.is, the whois records for this domain name have been updated on 19 April, 2010 (04:31:27 UTC). Here is the screenshort of the latest information.

The email contact is  still unchanged : jcherian-mwc@modi.com. Wonder who this Cherian is ? :) Definitely not me :D . It is evident that these latest changes are just an attempt to cover up of the whole thing. Or does that indicate the exit of Lalit Modi from the  IPL, handing over stuff to BCCI/IPL ?  Change of name and address doesnt really mean that the actual login creditanials have been transfered to BCCI/IPL. The website is now worth many crores of rupees and I won’t be surprised to see if Modi wants to keep the website for himself.  We will have to wait and watch !

Online, IPL is Modi’s own domain



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Tinucherian

Cherian Tinu Abraham is a Technology Professional from Bangalore, India. He is a blogger , Social Media Enthusiast And an active Wikipedian & Wikipedia administrator.

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  • http://nkr4068.blogspot.com Naveen K R

    Well there were articles in CNN-IBN saying that Lalit Modi is resigning on 26th April. So it is obvious he is going out, but all these complicates the issues.

  • http://pradeepnair.in Pradeep

    Interesting, Tinu… I think there is a lot more to this than what we are getting to see or hear in the public domain.

    I feel sorry for cricket, a great game, which is not just about physical efforts, but also about planning and strategising. Even T20, I have noticed, involves a lot of planning and flawless execution. For example, a lot of people think that T20 is all about batting and bowlers have no place. How wrong! A pack of great bowlers can produce wonders.

    Also, sad that eminent people like Shashi Tharoor have got themselves sucked into this quagmire… And how sad that people like him, have been led to believe that you can promote cricket in Kerala via IPL in its present state. I wish people invested in good coaching academies and facilities…

    To take this a little further, off tangent, I really don’t know if cricket actually needs any institutionalised promotion. It’s other games like basketball, hockey, volleyball, badminton etc etc that need infusion of funds and patronage. Anyway, that’s a different issue altogether…

  • http://cricket24x7.blogspot.com/ Jagadish

    Hi Tinu

    You’re only partially right. The domains are owned by Modi. But they were not updated recently.

    The question still remains though – Who is Johnson Cherian?

  • Tinucherian

    @Jagadish , I didnt say the domain was indeed updated an hour ago of my post.. but definitely it was changed within last 2 days , after the controversy brewed in. The screen shots were per record of who.is website. Specifically, note the screen shot of the website whois information a few days ago, which says it was indeed registered in the name of Lalit Modi instead of BCCI/ IPL.

    Thanks for identifying the full name of this Cherian. Most likely , Johnson Cherian is someone who works for Lalit Modi.

  • http://cricket.aqimg.com/?p=271 Johnson Cherian, Lalit Modi and a couple of domains « Cricket

    [...] Tinu Cherian reckons that the ownership details of iplt20.com changed on 19 April. [...]

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