When Mercedes cars reached Dharamshala for IPL commissioner Lalit Modi!

Lalit Modi went to those cities during his stint as IPL commissioner as he wouldn't ride any other model, says a new book. In "Maverick Commissioner: The IPL-Lalit Modi Saga", Boria Majumdar also writes that once Modi had left the country in May 2010 the hotel had sent a bill amount to the BCCI that remained unpaid and the board, which by then had no sympathy left for him, refused to clear it. According to the author, these are examples why the IPL continued to be hated by many.

Despite the cricket and the growing brand value, vulgar displays of opulence were always going to be an eyesore, he says. "Lalit, who was riding high on success, failed to see the writing on the wall and suffice it to say became a victim of his own success in the long term. In fact, for him these things were a necessity.

Glamour and opulence were at the very core of the league's existence and for Lalit, his actions were integral to making the IPL what it had turned out to be," he writes. The success of the first two seasons of IPL meant Lalit Modi had gained in prominence and it was all evident from his high-flying lifestyle, Majumdar argues. "The grapevine has it that for a game in Dharamshala which Lalit attended, his office had booked two S-class Mercedes cars from Delhi which travelled to Himachal before he landed there.

He wouldn't ride any other model and such extravagance had become routine with Lalit," he writes. This wasn't the only occasion when something as bizarre as this had happened, the author says. "On another occasion when he travelled to Nagpur to meet (Shashank Venkatesh) Manohar and watch an IPL game, his office had called up to arrange for an S-class Mercedes.