Mumbai, May 24 : Siddharth Mallya, co-owner of Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) team, has praised sacked Indian Premier League chief Lalit Modi, and said that Modi was a visionary, who made the IPL possible.

Mallya said this while attending the opening ceremony of a sports bar at the Mumbai airport.

"You know Lalit Modi, had a vision and Lalit Modi was visionary. Lot of these wouldn''t have been possible without Modi''s vision and to put the whole thing together was superb. The last three years and before this, Lalit Modi did a fantastic job.

"I have been asked this question before and I said the same answer which I said that IPL season four without Lalit Modi is like a sugar free candy bar. Looks the same, taste the same, but you always know that there is something missing," said Mallya.

The BCCI had issued a show cause notice to Modi in May 2011, charging him with financial irregularities in the cash rich IPL cricket tourney.

There are five main charges against Modi, ranging from receiving kickbacks for allotting TV broadcast rights to indiscipline and leveling baseless charges against the BCCI.

Modi was accused of a wide range of graft allegations, including bribery and tax evasion, resulting in his suspension from the post of IPL commissioner in April.

On asked how it is different to be part of a new team instead of Mumbai Indians, Zaheer Khan said that there is not much difference as at the end of the day it''s winning that matters.

Virat Kohli, player of RCB, said that they are very positive about the next match against Chennai Super Kings as they defeated them in their last match as well.

After defeating the Chennai Super Kings, RCB would again clash with Chennai on Tuesday''s first playoff in Mumbai''s Wankhede Stadium, a day before Kolkata takes on Mumbai in the second playoff at the same venue. (ANI)