Calcutta/Mumbai: The Kochi Tuskers Kerala IPL franchise has been terminated by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) for breaching its contractual terms.
The decision, announced by new president N. Srinivasan after the annual general meeting on Monday, has prompted the franchise to threaten legal action against the BCCI.
At the moment it’s not clear whether IPL-V will have only nine teams or there will be a fresh bidding process for a new franchise.
The Kochi franchise, which was mired in a bitter ownership dispute since its inception in March 2010, was warned last year itself about the consequences. That they paid no heed to the repeated warnings, show callousness on the part of the Kochi Tuskers management.
The franchise defaulted on a Rs 156 crore annual payment it was to make as bank guarantee. The decision was taken not by the newly-constituted IPL governing council but jointly by the outgoing council and the BCCI.
“Because of the irremediable breach committed by the Kochi franchise, the BCCI has decided to encash the bank guarantee (for 2010) in its possession and also terminate the franchise,” Srinivasan said. Asked if Kochi had any chance of returning, Srinivasan responded: “No, we have terminated the franchise because the breach is not capable of being remedied.”
BCCI insiders and sources in other IPL teams, however, brushed off the Kochi-IPL rift as “drama”.
“This is just drama to help them sort their books and eventually help a backdoor entry for the promoters in IPL in another avatar,” said an official of a Maharshtra-based franchise.
The decision to terminate the Kochi Tuskers, however, has left the 28 contracted cricketers in the lurch. They had been bought for two years at the last auctions.
The BCCI has stated that in case the franchise fails to pay up the players’ dues they would encash the bank guarantee and pay their salaries.
However the future of these players — which includes top names like former Sri Lanka captain Mahela Jayawardene, New Zealand’s Brendon McCullum and Indian players like Parthiv Patel, Sreesanth, Ravindra Jadeja and Rudra Pratap Singh — remain uncertain for now.
Former Union minister, Shashi Tharoor, who lost his ministerial berth because of his involvement with the Kochi franchise, blamed the management. “Running the team was the job of the management. But it is clear that they have messed it up. They don’t seem to have fulfilled the responsibility properly if this is the result,” he said.
“I am obviously very disappointed. I wanted a team to come to Kerala… I’m very proud of the role I played in bringing the team to Kerala but thereafter, running it is not my responsibility, not my job,” Tharoor said.
Later he also tweeted: “What a mess the management made of it!”
