Lalit Modi is working on a new sporting league. Speaking to Michael Vaughan on The Overlap Cricket podcast, the former Indian Premier League chairman said that he has been working on a sporting league which he believes will be the next big thing in the world.
Modi is currently in London, after his exile from the Indian Premier League. He has been in the news over the last couple of years for his outlandish and hard-hitting claims on the sporting ecosystem.
Speaking on the podcast, Modi revealed that he is betting on fighting sports to go big in the next few years. He said that he has been working on a league which he envisions will be far more successful than the Ultimate Fighting Championship, promoted by Dana White.
The UFC is currently reportedly valued at $12 billion and is one of the most successful sporting leagues in the world. Modi, however, argued that Dana White does not know what he is doing, as the league is worth much more.
Modi proposed that the UFC is doing it wrong, and that he could make the whole thing better. Here is how Lalit Modi’s chat with Michael Vaughan looked like.
Q. Which sports league would you like to own outside of cricket?
A. I would create a global MMA.
Q. Really? But Dana White does that now, doesn’t he?
A. Yeah, I think America does not know how to do it. It should be intercity. It should be inter-cities. It is worldwide. He does not know how to do it. I created IPL in one day, and it was worth billions even before I created it. I am working on something.
Q. Why fighting?
A. Because it is the oldest sport in the world. Fighting sport is the oldest sport in the world.
RISE AND FALL OF LALIT MODI
When Lalit Modi conceptualised the Indian Premier League in 2007, Indian cricket was already financially powerful but structurally conservative. Bilateral series and ICC events dominated the calendar. What Modi envisioned was something radically different, a city-based, franchise-driven T20 league that blended sport with entertainment, private investment and primetime television.
The timing was impeccable. The success of the inaugural ICC World Twenty20 2007, where a young Indian side lifted the trophy, had already ignited a nationwide appetite for the shortest format. Modi moved quickly. Within months, he had convinced the Board of Control for Cricket in India to back the league, sold franchises to corporate heavyweights and secured lucrative broadcast deals.
The first season of the IPL in 2008 was a cultural and commercial phenomenon. Packed stadiums, cheerleaders, Bollywood ownership and a high-octane brand of cricket turned the league into a nightly spectacle. Teams like Chennai Super Kings and Mumbai Indians quickly became household names, while relatively unknown players transformed into stars overnight. The league’s auction system, salary caps and emphasis on youth created a new cricketing economy.
At the centre of it all was Modi. As the IPL’s founding commissioner, he operated with sweeping authority, negotiating deals, shaping rules and driving expansion. Under his watch, the league’s valuation skyrocketed and it became one of the richest sporting properties in the world in less than three years.
But the same centralised control that fuelled the IPL’s rapid rise also laid the groundwork for Modi’s fall.
By 2010, questions around governance, transparency and financial dealings began to surface. The flashpoint came during the controversy over the Kochi franchise, where Modi publicly disclosed ownership details that triggered a political storm. The fallout drew the attention of the Government of India and tax authorities, exposing alleged irregularities in bidding processes, broadcast rights and franchise ownership structures.
Within weeks, Modi was suspended by the BCCI. An internal probe accused him of misconduct, financial impropriety and violating the board’s code of conduct. In 2013, he was formally banned for life by the BCCI, effectively ending his role in the league he had created.
Modi left India soon after, taking up residence in London, even as investigations by agencies like the Enforcement Directorate continued for years. While he has consistently denied wrongdoing, his exile marked one of the most dramatic falls in Indian sporting administration.
Yet, despite his ouster, the IPL did not just survive, it thrived. The structure Modi built proved resilient, evolving into a global template for franchise-based leagues across sports.
That duality defines his legacy. Modi remains both the architect of modern cricket’s most successful league and the man who lost control of it at its peak, a rise powered by vision and ambition, and a fall shaped by the very excesses that enabled it.
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