Exclusive: Modi admits involvement but says he walked awayIPL founder did not believe Subhash Chandra could pull off planA number of global stars interested in Packer-style move, says Modi

Lalit Modi, the man who created the Indian Premier League, insists he recently walked away from plans to create a rival governing body for cricket but has warned the International Cricket Council that this multibillion-pound project is likely to go ahead and challenge its monopoly on the sport.

The Guardian revealed last Friday that Indian conglomerate the Essel Group, which is owned by billionaire Subhash Chandra, and its subsidiary broadcaster Ten Sports had begun registering companies and websites that carry similar names to cricket boards, prompting fears among the existing establishment that a “rebel” form of the sport – akin to Kerry Packer’s World Series Cricket in the late 1970s – was set to be created.

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Modi, who was removed as IPL commissioner in 2010 by the Board of Cricket Control for India, was immediately rumoured to be behind the initiative, something both he and media tycoon Chandra, whose Zee television network boasts a reported 730 million viewers in 169 countries across its 70 channels, have since gone on record to deny.

Now, speaking to the Guardian, Modi has admitted he was involved in discussions with Essel on the idea for “a number of months”, with the project having been drawn up for “years”, only to withdraw because he did not think it could be pulled off. But he insists that the 64-year-old Chandra, who is worth a reported £2.6bn, is the type of character who will press ahead regardless.

While Modi claims he is bound by a confidentiality agreement regarding details of the project, he confirmed that Chandra’s intention is not simply to set up a single unofficial tournament, such as his now defunct Indian Cricket League which folded in 2009 after two seasons, but create a whole new global governing body for cricket that will feature both the Twenty20 and Test formats and reach out to smaller nations.

He believes a number of current global cricket stars are already aware of their intentions and interested, with wages set to be no issue. “I looked at the plan and discussed it. We had conversations for months – but I usually don’t touch something I cannot deliver, and this I cannot,” Modi said. “It’s not something you can just do and launch – it will take years and it won’t happen overnight. It is not putting a tournament together, it’s about building the sport from the grassroots up.

“You have to understand Subhash Chandra as a man. If you do, you will know he goes after what he wants and he does not stop. Whether he will succeed is the billion-dollar question,” he added. “Subhash is a powerful body no doubt but it is a foolish plan at the moment. But he does what he wants and I wish him all the luck. It could be very close, who knows? If he presses the button and puts the money on the table things could start very quickly. The ICC should be fearing him.”

Of huge concern to potential player recruits would be Essel’s previous track record, with the failed ICL tournament leaving around 60 cricketers and support staff £1.3m out of pocket when it collapsed six years ago. Of those, 12 have pursued the matter legally and the Guardian understands they are now close to a collective compromise payout of £270,000 – half of their original claim.

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Modi insists those past issues could be overcome if players were shown the money up front. “I don’t think players have signed anything yet but a few [of the big names] know about it. They will come, but it is too early for that. The plan requires billions up front,” he said. “Trust would be a serious issue but they could overcome that with advance payments. If somebody had three or four billion [dollars] to play around with, with it could be done very easily. Anything less? It would be very difficult.

“Logistics are the big issue and infrastructure the bigger issue,” continued Modi, who was the architect for the lucrative IPL, that is currently in the middle of its eighth season. “In my case we had one competition and had the cash and the infrastructure available, with partners and stadiums in place. On a green field project like this, where are the stadiums? They need to find them, create them or convert existing ones – the gestation period for that is quite long.”

Modi believes last year’s so-called “Big Three” takeover at the ICC, which led to India, Australia and England taking control of the governing body, the scrapping of the proposed Test championship in 2017 and the plan to reduce the World Cup to a 10-team tournament in 2019 has made the establishment vulnerable to such an audacious takeover.

“The ICC had better do what their charter states, which is to spread and enhance cricket,” he said. “But they have got rid of the Test championship and want to reduce the teams in the World Cup when they should be empowering them. That is the opportunity and that’s what I think Subhash is sensing. But I don’t think the plan is executable unless they go out and do some magic.”