Bombay HC rejects Kochi Tuskers plea against encashing bank guarantee

The Bombay High Court on Wednesday quashed Kochi Tuskers Kerala’s plea seeking to restrain the country’s apex cricket administrator from encashing its bank guarantee of Rs 154 crore.

“I refuse to give any relief and I am rejecting the application,” justice S F Vajifdar said in a brief order, said an agency.

On Monday, the Board of Control for Cricket in India had terminated the contract of the Kerala team for breach of contractual terms by non-payment of bank guarantee of Rs 156 crore. Under the terms of the agreement, each franchise has to submit a bank guarantee every year that covers the fee payable to the BCCI. The 2010-founded team was bought for Rs 1,550 crore and the consortium has to pay a bank guarantee of Rs 156 crore every year for the next one decade.

Kochi Tuskers Director Mukesh Patel had reacted sharply to BCCI’s decision to terminate the franchise, saying they had not defaulted—what’s more, BCCI owed the team Rs 12-15 crore as a part of its central revenue. Further, the board did not cut down franchise fees despite reducing the number of matches in IPL 4 from 94 to 74 due to packed international calender. “The number of games in Tender Document was 94, they then reduced it to 74 but did not reduce the franchise fees,” he had said.

Kochi Tuskers, since its inception, hit the headlines early last year following a spat between then Indian Premier League boss Lalit Modi and Shashi Tharoor, then a Union minister.

It eventually led to the exit of both persons from their posts and a complete revamp of the professional league of T20 competition in India. Again, the team was in bitter dispute due to lack of clarity in the team’s ownership pattern, a series of spats between its owners on shifting its base to Gujarat’s Ahmedabad and also tussles within the Kerala Cricket board.

The team is owned by consortium of investors which comprises Film Waves holding (13.97 per cent stake), Anchor (31.45), Parinee (30.27), Rendezvous (10), Anand Shyam (9.31) and Vivek Venugopal (5).