Chennai Super Kings players receive the trophy from Lalit Modi, in Navi Mumbai, on Sunday

Calcutta: Aware that top officials of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) would be staying away, Lalit Kumar Modi was desperate to have some ‘presence’ on the stage, during Sunday’s prize distribution ceremony in Navi Mumbai.

According to a well-placed source of The Telegraph, the then Indian Premier League (IPL) chairman and commissioner buttonholed a senior functionary of an affiliated unit and startled him by saying “you’ll be on the stage tonight.”

That, it seems, was communicated during the break.

Realising that Modi had an agenda — to show the world that the BCCI’s units did turn up in some strength during the IPL III final — the functionary quickly declined the invitation.

The functionary wasn’t available for comment, but the source said: “Modi tried to play a smart game and almost ‘trapped’ that gentleman... With the BCCI out to punish Modi, being on the stage in a show managed by him, and with him, wouldn’t have been politically correct...”

Modi’s ally, Punjab Cricket Association (PCA) president Inderjit Singh Bindra didn’t take the stage, but PCA treasurer G.S.Walia did. Also visible was Goa’s Dayanand G. Narvekar, known to flip-flop within the BCCI.

A couple of other units did have representation, but their functionaries chose not to be seen on the wrong side of the Establishment.

Even the IPL’s vice-chairman, Niranjan Shah, gave the final a miss. As also BCCI secretary Narayanswamy Srinivasan, who has a sizeable stake in the Chennai Super Kings, winners of the third edition.

Apparently, the BCCI president, Shashank Manohar, had left it to his senior colleagues to decide “individually.” That he himself wasn’t going, though, gave them a good enough signal.

Signal-reading really took root when Jagmohan Dalmiya used to hold durbars. That tradition continues.