Cricket scandal bowls politician

An Indian minister resigned yesterday over allegations of corruption in winning a cricket league franchise.

The row was over junior Foreign Minister Dr Shashi Tharoor's role in a southern city winning a US$333 million ($470 million) bid for the cricket franchise in the Indian Premier League.

The controversy erupted after Lalit Modi, the chief of the Indian Premier League, said the winning consortium allotted stakes worth about US$15 million for free to a woman Indian media identified as Tharoor's girlfriend Sunanda Pushkar. Modi said Tharoor had asked him not to reveal the shareholding details of the consortium.

Pushkar's lawyer said she had decided to give up her allotted stakes.