Former IPL chairman Lalit Modi has claimed that many star Indian cricketers were unwilling to play the inaugural ICC T20 World Cup in 2007, saying he personally approached players during India’s tour of England that year and urged them to take part in the tournament.India toured England from July 19 to September 8, 2007, for a three-Test and seven-ODI series, just before the inaugural ICC World Twenty20 began in South Africa on September 11. While senior players such as Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar and Sourav Ganguly were part of the England tour, they did not feature in India’s T20 World Cup squad. The team was led by MS Dhoni and included players such as Virender Sehwag, Yuvraj Singh, Gautam Gambhir, Dinesh Karthik, RP Singh and Irfan Pathan. Speaking to news agency ANI in an interview, Modi said many players dismissed the new format and were not interested in extending their stay for the tournament after a long tour.“I went to every player in the dressing room in England when India was touring in 2007. I went and I said, ‘Please, I beg you to play the T20. They said, ‘Lalit, are you joking? What is this stupid game? We don’t want to play it.’ Everybody said that to me in the dressing room. ‘Oh, we’ve had a long tour. We want to be with our families.’ Now, today, would the public, number one, the players, number two, the administrator, number three, accept a player not playing the World Cup? There’d be uproar,” he said.Modi also said the BCCI chose to send a young side to the tournament instead of its established stars. He pointed out that such a move would be difficult to imagine in the current cricket landscape.“The BCCI didn’t even send the main team, India team to South Africa to play the World Cup T20. They sent a second team. ‘Let’s not even send the India team. Let’s put our new team under Mahendra Singh Dhoni.’ Completely raw. Completely green. The Tendulkars, the Dravids, the Saurav Gangulys; none of them played the T20 World Cup. Would you accept that today? Today, if the Indian team is to go to the World Cup, any World Cup, would you accept a B team? Would the public accept a B team? Would the board accept a B team?” he added.According to Modi, T20 cricket initially struggled to attract attention in India because broadcasters and advertisers did not see value in the format.“Nobody believed in the T20 cricket in India. If there are no eyeballs, there’s no advertising dollars. There’s no advertising dollars, there’s no subscription. If someone is watching, then there will be money. If no one is watching, then there will be no money. Today, anything that has eyeballs is going to get the money from the advertisers,” he said.Modi further claimed that the inaugural T20 World Cup did not generate significant viewership until Yuvraj Singh hit six sixes in an over against England. He said that moment helped increase interest in the tournament and played a role in changing perceptions about the format.“The T20 World Cup in South Africa had no ratings till Yuvraj Singh hit the six sixes. Till that very day. I orchestrated that. It just happened. I just said anybody who makes six sixes or takes six wickets in an over, I’ll give you a porsche. I was trying to make something happen when nobody was wanting to make it happen. I went around the world trying to convince people because I knew it will work,” he said.
