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London - Suspended Indian Premier League chairman Lalit Modi insisted he was not in hiding, but refused at a London conference on Wednesday to address the corruption charges facing him.
Modi has been living mainly outside India since being suspended in April by the Board of Control for Cricket in India as it investigates bribery allegations in the 2008 auction for new teams in the IPL.
India's External Affairs Ministry has threatened to revoke Modi's passport if he doesn't respond to the charges, which relate to the 2008 franchise auctions for the first tournament. The BCCI is reportedly accusing him of misappropriation of funds of 4.7 billion rupees ($104 million).
At his first public appearance in several months at the International Sports Event Management conference in London on Wednesday, Modi refused to answer in-depth questions about his legal plight, saying: "When the due process is finished I will answer questions."
Asked during an on-stage interview whether some people might be surprised to see him attending, Modi responded: "I guess so - they thought I was in hiding somewhere ... but I'm right here."
Modi used the platform to take credit for founding one of the most lucrative sports league in the world and claimed to have created a sports industry in India for the first time.
"If we hadn't done the IPL there was a fear that other sports, like soccer etc., would make inroads with the population," Modi said.
Modi predicted that by 2016 the IPL would be the most-watched sports league in the world after struggling to get the competition off the ground in the first place.
"If you look at the media coverage and you look at the advertising role and the sponsors' role - everybody was against it," Modi said. "Everybody voted against it and nobody thought it would work, domestic cricket had never worked in India. Leave it alone.
"We had (the) Champions Trophy and other international events and everybody only watched in India the Indian team and nobody watched anything else so, there was skeptics out there saying, 'How is this going to work? Who is going to watch a city-based team?"'
Modi has previously denied any wrongdoing in the bidding process, saying that his running of the highly successful IPL was completely transparent.
"The IPL is run by the BCCI which is a nonprofit organization so 100 percent of the money actually goes back in to develop the grass roots (of the sport) and the infrastructure," he said at Twickenham rugby stadium. "That is the most important lesson I have learned and I would think is the most important way forward - to always push the envelope and innovate and not be scared."
Modi believes the IPL's success will help to pave the way for an India Olympic bid despite the organizational problems in New Delhi that led to the Commonwealth Games nearly being called off earlier this year.
"Sooner than later I would definitely see India bidding for the Olympics and hopefully, with the will of the people, we will able to win the Olympic federations' nod to get it one day," Modi said.
Asked whether he wanted to be part of a bid, Modi responded: "(I'm) taking it one day at a time and I hope definitely to be part of it."
