ECB warns County members to keep away from suspended BCCI officials

With the controversy surrounding a meeting that Lalit Modi had with three English cricket counties and IMG, the England Cricket Board (ECB) has warned its counties to not enter into any dialogue with 'suspended' Indian Cricket Board officials.

In a statement, the ECB said that the BCCI has asked it to avoid contact with suspended officials. "The BCCI has further reminded ECB that it does not authourise any discussions with suspended officials of its Board and should any person involved in English cricket receive any contact from a suspended official then ECB has been asked to immediately report this matter to BCCI."


Meanwhile, English counties will not take part in the Airtel Champions League Twenty20 in South Africa as the revised dates clash with the end of the English domestic season. This will cost the ECB nearly a million pounds.

The ECB already shifted the county fixture list once to accommodate the Champions League, which was originally scheduled for early October. But the scheduling of a one-day series between India and Australia in October meant that the tournament was brought forward to 10-26 September, which left the ECB with no room for manoeuvre.

Lalit Modi spoke at the Google Zeitgeist 2010 Conference in London. He says that the success of the IPL pissed off people. "I guess I became the focus of so many charges because we got 149 million viewers to watch the IPL final. Everybody wondered how we got there. We grew too fast. We blew every number on the table; we blew everything that anybody said that can't be done. We surpassed every plan that we put on the table. We pissed off a lot of people."