Dinesh Kamath's Editorial (Lalit Modi backs SRK but who'll speak for poor security guards?) that was published in Newsband

Lalit Modi backs SRK but who’ll speak for poor security guards?

Shah Rukh Khan may be facing ire from the MCA, but his old friend and schoolmate Lalit Modi supports him in the wake of the recent scuffle at the Wankhede stadium.

MCA opposed Shah Rukh's version of Wankhede fracas and dictated terms by banning the star from entering the Wankhede for five years from now.

However, the former architect of the cash-rich IPL T20 tournament, Lalit Modi, has slammed the MCA for creating troublesome affairs for IPL from the moment it entered the arena in 2008.

Modi had preferred the DY Patil stadium in Navi Mumbai during his tenure for conducting matches, without being hassled by officials of the stadium. He calls it a sad decision by MCA and says that if he was BCCI/IPL chief he would move all matches to D Y Patil stadium or CCI. He had tasted highhandedness of MCA before too. According to him, MCA had always gone out of their way to make things difficult for IPL matches from day one. That's why D Y Patil Stadium was used.

Supporting the IPL franchises, Modi said that the teams have the right to interfere in the administration of the cricket stadium during the matches, which is mentioned in the contract.

IPL was designed in such a way that Team owners could get to run the stadium as if there's on the day of there matches. Its part of contract. They pay for the rental of ground, security and all costs. They are supposed to get clean stadia. Its up to them how they want their games to run.

Administrators in some Associations want to take all the glory although their input is zero in IPL.

At a time when Shah Rukh Khan has been criticized for misusing his celebrity status in his public life, Modi tries to defend the actor saying that the actor has always been conducting himself in an appropriate manner in public. Modi knows the man better than anyone. He has seen him in extreme situations. He is usually the last to be provoked. So it must have been something that provoked him, he feels.  

Modi is a powerful man in cricket world. He chose to speak for Shah Rukh Khan. But who will speak for those poor security guards who became the victims of Khan’s ire. There is a huge section of cricket-lovers who feel that Bollywood star Shah Rukh Khan should not have had a scuffle with security guards since the latter were just doing their duties and Khan had no business to teach them their duties. Would Khan have liked it if someone had to deliver to him lessons in acting?