Why Does Lalit Modi Have The Bat With Which Yuvraj Singh Hit Six Sixes?

Yuvraj Singh shook the cricket world when he became the first person in T20Is to hit six sixes in a row. That happened during the maiden edition of the T20 World Cup in 2007.

That not only brought the T20s closer to home amongst cricket fans, but also got the batter a brand-new Porsche, which, at that point in time, when the Indian Premier League (IPL) was not born, was a big thing to have.

A Porsche top model that Yuvraj Singh got thanks to his heroics cost 1.29 Cr back then in 2007 and today it costs almost double. But how did Yuvraj get that gift? And from whom?

In a recent chat with former Australia captain Michael Clarke on his Beyond23CricketPod podcast, former Indian Premier League (IPL) chairperson Lalit Modi revealed that he had gifted a Porsche to Yuvraj because of a promise that he had made to the Indian team ahead of the start of the T20 World Cup 2007. 

Claiming that he had entered the Indian dressing room, Modi recalled saying, "Anybody hit six sixes or took six wickets in an over ... I'll give you a Porsche from my pocket.”

After Yuvraj achieved the feat against England, hitting Stuart Broad for six maximums in Durban, he looked straight at Lalit Modi, claimed the 61-year-old. It was then that he schemed how he was going to have that famous bat. 

"Yuvraj, looks at me on the boundary ... he raises the bat, and he comes running to me, 'I want my Porsche', I said, give me the bat," Modi added. 

That six, along with India winning the World Cup and beating arch-rivals Pakistan, was the biggest stage-setter for the IPL, which has now become synonymous with T20s.