Calcutta: Sahara India — owners of the Pune Warriors franchise — has pulled out of the IPL following financial differences with the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI).
The franchise has cited BCCI’s lackadaisical arbitration proceedings to lower the franchise fee and its decision to encash the team’s bank guarantee as reasons for the decision, which comes three years after it bought the franchisee for $370 million, the highest price paid for any of the IPL franchisees.
Pune Warriors finished eighth in IPL-VI, winning four of the 16 matches they played.
This is the second time that Sahara has pulled out of the IPL; they quit on the day of the 2012 auction and also withdrew as sponsors of the Indian team.
This time, though, Sahara will continue its sponsorship of the Indian team until the end of December 2013, when their present contract expires. In a media release, Sahara said it was “disgusted” by the BCCI’s attitude and will not rejoin the league even if the entire franchisee fee was waived off.
“...We would not keep the IPL franchisee even if the entire franchisee fee is waived off. It is a firm and final decision of Sahara to withdraw from the IPL.
“In 2010, Sahara had bid Rs 1700 crore for IPL franchise on the basis of revenue calculation on 94 matches. It was tricky on part of the BCCI to put the number of matches as 94 for getting a bigger amount. But we got 64 matches only,” it added.
Sahara claimed that the BCCI turned a deaf ear to its pleads for arbitration and reducing the franchisee fee.
“We and the Kochi team immediately protested and requested the BCCI to reduce the bid price proportionately for viable IPL proposition. Nothing was heard. We waited with the confidence that such a sports body should have sportsmanship spirit,” the release said.
“We continuously requested the BCCI for arbitration from June 2011. But the BCCI is only concerned about money and not about the genuine interests of the franchisee. Thus, (when) we could not penetrate BCCI’s deaf ears, we announced our withdrawal in February 2012,” it added.
“The BCCI approached us for a solution and requested us to not withdraw. After a series of discussions with the top-most BCCI officials, including the BCCI president, in Mumbai, a joint statement was issued by Sahara & the BCCI in February 2012. The joint statement, amongst many other things, specifically mentioned the agreement to start arbitration proceedings through immediate appointment of an arbitrator.
“Following up on the joint statement, Sahara suggested the name of a Retired Hon’ble Chief Justice of India on the 5th March 2012 to be appointed as the arbitrator. There was no response from the BCCI for four months and after repeated prodding, finally, on the 9th of July, Sahara’s advocates received a letter from BCCI rejecting the name proposed by Sahara without mentioning any reason and also without suggesting any alternatives.
“After that, despite our repeated efforts to have the arbitration initiated, we suggested other names, which too were turned down and instead meaningless communication was created to stall finalisation.
“Meanwhile, Sahara kept on paying the full franchise fee of Rs 170.20 crore annually, without prejudice to its rights and contentions, in the hope that this will be resolved soon. But unfortunately, it was not done.
“Fed up with this stalemate, our Hon’ble chairman, Saharasriji, had written to the BCCI president that the arbitration for downward revision of the fees has not progressed in 3 years’ time. Hence, he requested for a proper meeting to personally discuss the way forward... This fell on deaf ears.
“After that, a few days back, in Delhi, our Hon’ble chairman Saharasriji had again requested, this time in person, to Hon’ble Shri Rajeev Shuklaji, that if the BCCI cannot accept arbitration, we then want to amicably exit IPL. Our chairman, in clear words, was committed again by Hon’ble Shri Rajeev Shuklaji that the BCCI shall comeback and till then, Bank guarantee will not be touched, not be revoked since the expiry date of bank guarantee was 2nd May 2013. But again we waited and no reply came,” the release said.
“Had we followed the legal advice of withdrawing at the start of the IPL season, this would have resulted in putting tremendous pressure on BCCI... whereas the BCCI has shown its un-sportsmanship and no consideration towards the sports which we have been supporting for more than a decade.”
The Sahara group claimed that the BCCI threatened to take the concerned bank to court if the guarantee was not paid immediately.
“We still tried to contact for amicable settlement, but could not get anybody on phone in time. But our bank informed that even at 8 in the evening, the BCCI representative was still present at the bank and threatened that if money is not paid to BCCI, they shall move court to blacklist the bank.”
The Sahara Group said that it was tempted to withdraw from the Indian cricket team’s sponsorship too, but refrained from doing so in the interest of the players.
“There is a very strong urge in us to withdraw from the sponsorship of the Indian cricket team... But, the interest of the players will suffer if we do so. We share an excellent relationship with the players and will not want such dedicated and good human beings to get harmed financially due to the unsporting attitude of BCCI.”
“So, we have given time to the BCCI to get the new sponsors in place from January 2014, as we will continue the national team’s sponsorship only up to December 2013, the expiry date of the present agreement.”
