London [UK], June 4 (ANI): Former Indian Premier League (IPL) chairman Lalit Modi has said that former Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje believed in his vision of creating a cricket tournament of the scale of the IPL and had seen his work with cricket.

In an exclusive interview with ANI in London, Lalit Modi said the product he had created is satisfying and gratifying and entertaining for the world. He also said that BCCI has got more muscle because of IPL.

'It was Vasundhara Raje. She believed in my vision from very beginning. We were friends. Before she became Chief Minister...she was a young girl. And all the Modi family went to Scindia school. Her mother and my grandmother were very good friends. We were good friends from a long time...before even I got married. She knew what I had done with cricket, I had done with sports, what I had done with Modi Entertainment Network. We were friends,' Lalit Modi said.

He said cricket became a passion after it became a business for him. This he said took on the form of an agenda after he relinqushed charge of ESPN to the Murdoch family.

'Cricket was never my passion. It became a passion of mine after it became a business for me in the ESPN. And then when Murdoch took it away, it became an agenda for me,' Lalit said.

Asked if Vasundhra Raje warned him at any point of time that he was running foul with people who would later go after him, Lalit Modi said nobody went after him even after he left India.

'Didn't know anybody was going after me till I left India. Even when I left India, nobody went after me. It was only before the Shashi Tharoor that people went after me for other reasons. But they didn't go after me for what I created. People to this day appreciate what I did anyway. So there is nobody who has actually gone after me for the product. The product that I created is actually satisfying and gratifying and entertaining for the world,' he said.

'We made it that it is for the whole family. And today the generation that we live in, the boys and the girls who are 15, 17, 18, they don't know Test cricket, they don't know India cricket, all they know is IPL and that's what they will know,' he added.

Asked if BCCI today has more muscle because of IPL, Lalit Modi said 'without doubt'.

'And that is why everybody wants to get into it. BCCI had no cost, only money. When IPL started, IPL was 1% of BCCI revenue. Today we are 90%,three years from now we will be 95%, ' he said.

The IPL, launched in 2008 transformed the landscape of franchise cricket and has become one of the most commercially successful sporting leagues globally.

Lalit Modi has faced a money laundering case probe by Enforcement Directorate. In 2013, he was banned for life by BCCI for 'indiscipline and misconduct'. He has said there is no wrongdoing by him.

Lalit Modi served as the founder, first chairman and league commissioner of the IPL and oversaw the tournament from 2008 to 2010. He also served as chairman of the Champions League Twenty20 from 2008 to 2010, vice-president of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) from 2005 to 2010, president of the Rajasthan Cricket Association during two separate terms, and vice-president of the Punjab Cricket Association. (ANI)