Since the inception of the Indian Premier League a little over three years ago, Lalit Modi has run it like his personal fiefdom, carving out large chunks of the pie for family, friends and well-wishers. For the better part of two years, everyone -- the Board of Control for Cricket in India honchos, large sections of the media, even the public -- knew what was going on, but in the euphoria over the building of "the world's biggest sporting brand", they chose to turn a blind eye to behind-the-scenes shenanigans.

And then Modi [acting, ironically, on the advice of the then BCCI president] chose to out the Shashi Tharoor involvement in the Kochi franchise, and all hell predictably broke loose. I've chronicled that event, and all that happened since, so exhaustively that there is little point in an extended iteration. Net net, the single biggest outcome was the universal demonization of Lalit Modi, who was depicted as the source for all ills in the IPL, and by extension Indian cricket. The