Sahara's exit will have no impact on IPL, says Rajiv Shukla

The Indian Premier League (IPL) authorities on Saturday said the IPL would continue and the withdrawal of the Pune Warriors or the Sahara group would not impact the matches in any way.

IPL officials also termed Sahara's exit as unfortunate. The Sahara group, the official sponsor of the Indian cricket team, and the owner of IPL franchise Pune Warriors said it planned to exit the association with the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) and the IPL.

On the Sahara group’s move, IPL chairman Rajiv Shukla said the association or the authority had not received any official communication from the Sahara group.

"The move is an unfortunate one. However, we haven't received any communication from them in writing, or any other official intimation. We heard about it only through a press release in the morning. We cannot make any comment now. We can react only after we receive any official communication," Shukla told the media at the IPL auction here.

He added the IPL Twenty20 event would continue whether the Pune Warriors participated or not. "We have started auctions for the fifth edition, franchisees are participating. Now, the show will go on." Earlier, the BCCI had rejected Sahara's plea to add $1.8 million to its wallet to participate in the auction, as Yuvraj Singh was unavailable this season, due to an injury.

When asked about this, he said Sahara's Pune Warriors' sought flexibility in the rules and regulations governing the IPL. "We decided not to accommodate their request, as it would be unfair to other franchisees," he said. "They requested for some flexibility in the rules and regulations. But it would be unfair to other franchisees to concede to their demands. The IPL rules are very clear that a replacement can be sought for sick or injured players, only within the amount the player had been bid for in the last auction," he said.

He added IPL authorities would hold discussions with the Sahara group and would bring up the matter before the BCCI Marketing Committee.

On a query about the players of the Pune IPL team, IPL chief executive Sundar Raman said, "We will look into it once they communicate with us."

Meanwhile, a senior IPL spokesperson said in the statement issued by Sahara, they had requested that the team be immediately passed on to another interested party, albeit through the right process and regulations.