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| (Top) Shilpa and Preity |
Mumbai, April 26: Shashank Manohar has given a rude awakening to Shilpa Shetty, who, it emerged today, is a mere “brand ambassador” for the Rajasthan Royals and not one of the owners.
Manohar, the president of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), said the Royals’ reported co-owners, Shilpa and her businessman husband Raj Kundra, didn’t even figure in the shareholding papers of the franchise.
The Jaipur franchise has among its principal stakeholders Suresh Chellaram, a Nigeria-based businessman who is the brother-in-law of suspended IPL chairman Lalit Modi.
“Modi made a statement that the entire world knows who the shareholders are but the fact is that not even the governing council members know about Rajasthan Royals. I did not find the names of Shilpa Shetty and Raj Kundra in the papers and they claim to be stakeholders,” Manohar said at a news conference, held around noon.
Hours later, presumably after sleeping till late, Shilpa tweeted to change the perception she had created so far about being a co-owner of the Rajasthan Royals. She had appeared at a news conference by team owners soon after the player auction in February, going so far as to make sharp comments about the absence of bidding for Pakistani cricketers.
Today, though, she chose to project her interest in the Rajasthan Royals differently.
“Woke up and heard on tv tht v r not Coowners of RR! Only want to say there is NO DOUBT that RAJ is a stake holder and I am the Brand ambsadr,” the actress wrote on her Twitter page.
“This IS THE TRUTH! Dunno y all this confusion... will have clarity on a lot of things by tomw...” she wrote in the next tweet.
However, late tonight she clarified again through another tweet: “darling my Husband owns it, I own it same thing! Its all in the family:) its an understood partnership….”
Shilpa has been among Modi’s most vociferous backers along with liquor baron Vijay Mallya and the Kolkata Knight Riders’ Jay Mehta.
Mallya, however, said today: “I believe no individual is bigger than the institution and so, if for some reason, Lalit Modi can’t be chairman, IPL 4 should still go on….”
Faced with the public attack, the Rajasthan Royals board is meeting tomorrow to mount a defence.
BCCI sources said the board was yet to receive its due share of five per cent as transaction fee for transfer of shares by the Royals and Kings XI Punjab.
Top Royals officials claimed that Kundra was a legitimate owner but the BCCI might not have the papers to show it. “All’s okay. It is just a matter of delayed paperwork. The BCCI may not have the papers as a few things are yet to be regularised,” said a Royals source.
Royals officials said that after Kundra’s Bahamas-based Kuki Investments picked up a stake in 2009, the shares transferred had not been regularised in the BCCI’s books.
“A transfer fee is required to be paid to the BCCI in such cases, which has been delayed so far. So documents proving their ownership may not be with the BCCI. But we will rectify this and take a decision after Tuesday’s board meet. We will pay up in a day or two,” said the Royals source.
Board sources said actress Preity Zinta, a current stakeholder in the Punjab team, also needs to pay a similar share transfer fee.
“When the bids were given, it was signed only by Preity Zinta. She said she would form a consortium with three people, Mohit Burman, one Mr (Karan) Paul and one other name. When the franchise agreement was signed by her, she did not have a single share in that company. The shares were transferred to her after the signing of the agreement,” the board president said.