MUMBAI: The
Indian Premier League (IPL) is back to being an eight-team affair. The Indian cricket board (BCCI) has decided to terminate its agreement with the
Sahara Pune Warriors
franchise on account of the latter failing to provide the necessary
bank guarantee as directed by the Bombay High Court early this year.
The Working Committee (WC) of the Board met in Chennai on Saturday to
discuss Sahara's "default" in not submitting the bank guarantee of Rs
170 crore for the seventh edition of the
IPL
scheduled next year. The Board has claimed that as per the terms of its
franchise agreement, this bank guarantee was due for delivery in March
2013, more than six months ago.
The
BCCI
also says that in August this year, pending arbitration, Sahara had
moved the Bombay HC seeking injunction on the cricket board's right to
terminate the franchise. In its order, dated September 5, the court,
however, had ruled that BCCI would not terminate the agreement only if
Sahara ended up paying the required bank guarantee.
The BCCI
now says it wrote to Sahara on five separate occasions in the last six
months - between April and October - asking for the bank guarantee to be
submitted, but their continuous refusal to do so has led to the
termination now.
Sahara had bought the Pune franchise in 2010
through a bidding process for a whopping $370m, the payment for which
had to be done in 10 installments of $37m per year.
"In order
to proceed with the preparations for the 2014 season, it is important
that BCCI now has certainty as to whether the Pune franchise will comply
with the terms of its franchise agreement," the board said in a
statement issued on Saturday. "Given Sahara's continued position that it
would not deliver the bank guarantee, the WC unanimously determined to
terminate the franchise agreement, while taking whatever action was
necessary to protect the BCCI position," the statement added.
The BCCI is unlikely to float another tender this year to replace the
Pune franchise and therefore, when fresh player auctions are held in
2014 ahead of the league's seventh season, only eight teams will be in
the fray.
'Withheld bank guarantee because of BCCI's betrayal of trust'
Sahara Group on Saturday sought to defend its decision to not furnish
the bank guarantee, saying it was forced to do that as the Board "has
always acted in betrayal of trust and not fulfilled its part of
obligations".
Sahara Group said the "arbitrary" reduction in
the number of IPL matches by the BCCI from the number stipulated in the
franchise agreement was at the centre of the whole dispute.
"BCCI had made pre-bid representations that 94 matches will be held in
every season and then arbitrarily reduced the number of matches from 94
to 74 & then 76. Sahara had placed its bid for IPL franchise based
on the representations of BCCI which were false," the Sahara group said
in a release.
"The reduction in the number of matches has had a
substantial financial impact due to the reduction in the central
revenues under the Franchise Agreement. Sahara had raised the issue
regarding significant reduction in the number of matches which was one
of the most important basis and criteria for the bid, since 2011," it
said.
"BCCI did not want to honour their promises. Therefore
due to non fulfillment of reciprocal obligations of BCCI and failure to
keep its promises as given in February 2012, Sahara was left with no
option but to hold back the Bank Guarantee till promises and obligations
were fulfilled. But instead of fulfilling its promises and obligations,
BCCI went ahead and terminated the contract, which itself is in
breach."
Trimmed SA tour blamed on Sahara!
Chennai: In the working committee meeting, the decision to finish the
South Africa tour by December end was too blamed on Sahara. It was told
to the members that Sahara's sponsorship deal with the Indian team ends
by the end of the year and it's certain that they won't renew the
contract.
"It wouldn't have been feasible to have two sponsors
for the team in the same series. That is one of the main reasons we have
to finish the South Africa tour by December 31," a source said.
Elaborating on the curtailment of the South Africa tour, the working
committee members were told that the entire country, including
Sachin Tendulkar, wanted his 200th Test to be in India. That's why the BCCI decided to have the West Indies series in India in November.