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Calcutta: Three days after stunning the cricketing world, Sahara India supremo Subroto Roy has gone on record to say that he will do everything possible to ensure that Pune has a team in IPL-V and that the Pune Warriors India players don’t lose out.
As of now, the Pune team is owned by Sahara, which forked out around Rs 1700 crore at the auction in 2010, making it the most expensive IPL franchise.
Obviously, it appears that Roy is more than open to negotiating with the BCCI and it’s possible that some monetary arrangement may be reached allowing Sahara to continue with its association with the IPL, at least in season V.
As was reported by The Telegraph sometime back, Sourav Ganguly will lead the Pune Warriors.
Meanwhile, ousted IPL chairman Lalit Modi has confirmed that the auction for the 2009 edition was “rigged” in favour of Chennai Super Kings whose owner, N. Srinivasan is now the president of the BCCI.
Srinivasan, however, rubbished Modi’s claims by stating that there is “absolutely no substance or truth” in what he is saying.
Modi alleged that the rules were tweaked to allow former England all-rounder Andrew Flintoff to remain with CSK.
“Flintoff auction was rigged. I made it clear that time. That onus was on me and as chairman I should have not allowed that to happen then. I was arm-twisted to allow Andrew Flintoff to go to Chennai Super Kings.
“I’m to blame for that. It’s a fact. Similar problem happened with the Pakistani players. Arm-twisting happened by senior BCCI officials that nobody should pick them,” Modi told a TV channel.
Modi’s allegations come close on the heels of Sahara India announcing its decision to pull out of its sponsorship of the Indian team and ownership of the Pune Warriors.
“Subroto is right when he says there is no level playing field. Over past few seasons we have seen rules being changed to benefit one team or the othe,” Modi said.
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