New Delhi, Thursday 15 April 2010: Even In the eye of storm over its ownership pattern, Indian Premier League’s Kochi franchise today alleged that IPL commissioner Lalit Modi is targetting the new team under pressure from Chief Minister of western state of Gujarat Narendra Modi.

The Kochi team is under the scanner for allegedly giving ‘free equity’ to Dubai-based entrepreneur Sunanda Pushkar, who is a close friend of the Minister of State for External Affairs Shashi Tharoor.

“We were told that we won’t be allowed to work. The Adani group and Narendra Modi had a stake in the Ahmedabad IPL bid.

After we won the bid, our investors spoke to (former BCCI chief) Sharad Pawar and asked him which city to choose. He said ‘you can take your pick’, so we decided to take Kochi,” the franchise’ spokesperson Satyajit Gaekwad told reporters here.

(PTI)