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By Nick Harris
24 April 2010
Shilpa Shetty, the Bollywood star and co-owner of the Rajasthan Royals IPL team, has said today that Lalit Modi, the under-fire IPL commissioner, “made” the IPL, “made India proud” and “made cricket a feasible and viewed sport worldwide”.
Modi is under pressure amid allegations of financial impropriety and hidden shareholdings (and continuing scrutiny) in the wake of remarks he in turn made about alleged improper behaviour by Shashi Tharoor, the former Indian Minister of State for External affairs. Tharoor subsequently resigned his government post.
Modi has spoken out today on his Twitter feed, saying he is being pressured to resign but will resist that pressure and instead expose others for alleged wrongdoing.
In one Tweet, Modi said: “ Wait for the IPL to finish – I will reveal the men who have tried to bring disrepute to the game and how we stopped them from doing it.”
In another he said: “ People pressurising me to resign – I can tell you will not happen. Let them remove me then.”
In a third he said: “What we have done [to build the IPL] has been there for all of you to see for the past four years. No one can take that away.”
Shetty, 34, also via Twitter, said: “Lalit made IPL, made India proud, made cricket a feasible and viewed sport worldwide! Unfair to make him the fall man without a fair trial!”
And in a message directly to Modi that also mentioned her husband and fellow co-owner of the Royals, Raj Kundra, she wrote: “Raj and I totally empathise with ure [sic] situation. B strong B positive.”
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