‘Dawood Took Three Hits At Me, Son Got Kidnapped’: Lalit Modi On Why He Retired From Cricket

Last Updated:June 04, 2026, 13:03 IST

Lalit stated that his firm stance against match-fixing during early years of the IPL came into direct conflict with a massive underground betting network controlled by D-Company.

Over a decade after his controversial exit from Indian cricket administration, former IPL commissioner Lalit Modi has, for the first time, claimed that the alleged life-threatening intimidation from underworld figure Dawood Ibrahim and his criminal network played a major role in his decision to step away permanently from cricket administration.

While speaking exclusively to news agency ANI, Lalit stated that his firm stance against match-fixing during the early years of the IPL came into direct conflict with a massive underground betting network allegedly controlled by the D-Company.

The former IPL commissioner further claimed that he had faced multiple threats to his life, alleging that Dawood Ibrahim had made three separate attempts to target him. He also added that his son was kidnapped in London.

D-Company’s Satta Bazaar In Cricket

He further highlighted that the syndicate runs a vast “Satta Bazaar", where betting odds fluctuate with every ball delivered.

“Dawood Ibrahim is a known bookmaker. He controlled the cricket book. In those days, it used to be $2 billion of underground betting. Today, it’s $4 billion of underground betting a game. It’s huge. It’s unimaginably huge. Every ball, there’s an odd chance. It’s the Satta Bazaar. Nobody fixes games anymore. You fix overs. You fix the ball," revealed Lalit.

Speaking about the sophisticated spot-fixing methods where individual balls or specific overs are targeted by the bookies through covert on-field signals, Lalit said, “We don’t know what success is. It’s become so sophisticated. Somebody takes out a handkerchief, somebody rubs something the other way, and it’s a sign. Okay, we watch for these signs. We look for these signs."

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He claimed that because he was strictly monitoring these signs and not cooperating, he became a primary target of the mafia.

“If you look at the first three years when I ran the IPL, there was no fixing. I took a lot of people to task. And I threw a lot of people out of the stadium. I banned a lot of people from coming. It wasn’t liked by the mafia. They offered me hundreds of millions of dollars to look the other way," Modi claimed.

Meeting With Fixer In London Penthouse

Recalling events from 2012, Lalit described an alleged episode in which a London-based fixer arranged a late-night meeting at a penthouse owned by a well-connected intermediary known as Baba.

He claimed that during the meeting, the intermediary stepped out to the terrace and made a satellite phone call to Dawood Ibrahim, placing the fugitive don on speaker, allegedly to pressure him into helping secure an IPL franchise for the syndicate.

“I have not told this story to anybody… I’m called at 3.30 in the morning… He (fixer) says, ‘You have to come and meet this guy, Baba. And you have to come now.’ I thought maybe it’s something important. So I go to Baba’s house. There, he (Baba) says, ‘You have left India, we need an IPL team.’ I said I am not even in India. Why do you need an IPL team? Whoever wants to go and buy from someone can go buy it. Moreover, I’m not even going back to India; there is a Dawood problem there. To which he said, ‘I will fix it in a minute,'" Lalit revealed.

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“The intermediary then went out onto his terrace, took out a satellite phone, and allegedly dialled Dawood Ibrahim directly. “He goes on his terrace. He takes out his satellite phone and calls Dawood on the phone. Baba says, ‘Dawood bhai, Lalit bhai aaya hai. Baat karo.’ (Dawood Bhai, Lalit bhai has come. Talk to him.) I said I’m not talking. So he put the call on speaker. I again said, I’m not talking. And he (Dawood) simply says, ‘You are his friend, forget everything, it is all over,'" he further disclosed.

‘Took Three Hits On Me, Kidnapped My Son’

Lalit Modi claimed that after rejecting offers reportedly worth hundreds of millions of dollars linked to attempts to influence match outcomes, he became the target of multiple assassination attempts allegedly ordered by Dawood Ibrahim, saying he survived three such incidents. He further revealed that his son was also kidnapped in London.

“Bombay police put me on Z-security. I didn’t ask for it. All of a sudden, I had Z-security. There was a shootout outside my house in Bombay. There was a hit for me in Johannesburg. And I’m in Cape Town, which was picked up by the South African government. There was a hit on me in Montenegro, which was picked up at the Croatian border. My son was kidnapped in London on Sloane Street, right there… by a guy called Baba Avin. He lived on Park Street," Lalit claimed.

Lalit claimed that the tense, multi-layered confrontation eventually eased after top syndicate figure Chhota Shakeel allegedly appeared in a live interview, stating that the mafia had settled its differences with him.

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Prisha Vibhavari

Prisha is the Chief Sub-Editor at News18.com, with more than 10 years of experience in national and international news. She specialises in editorial leadership, sharp news judgment, and high-impact st...Read More

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