Sahara declares its innings

Withdraws Pune Warriors from IPL as BCCI encashes bank guarantee; To discontinue Indian team sponsorship from year-end

The Sahara group, which on Tuesday announced withdrawal of its Pune Warriors team from the Indian Premier League (IPL) after the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) encashed the team’s bank guarantee, said it would also end its sponsorship of the Indian cricket team from the end of the year.

BCCI, the governing body for the game in India, encashed the guarantee after Pune Warriors failed to pay the full franchise fee for the current year, casting a shadow on the team’s future in the cash-rich league.

Sahara, which had bought the franchise for Rs 1,700 crore in 2010, said it was “disgusted” by BCCI’s attitude towards it and would not rejoin the league even if the entire franchise fee was waived. The company claimed it had bid for the IPL franchise on the basis of revenue calculation of 94 matches. But it got only 64 matches. According to Sahara, BCCI turned a deaf ear to its pleadings for arbitration and reducing the franchise fee.

“We and the Kochi franchise immediately protested and requested BCCI to reduce the bid price proportionately for a viable IPL proposition. Nothing was heard. We waited with confidence that such a sports body would have sportsmanship spirit,” it said. The company added it continuously requested BCCI for arbitration from June 2011. “But BCCI is only concerned about money and not about franchisees’ genuine interests. Thus, (when) we could not penetrate BCCI’s deaf ears, we announced our withdrawal in February 2012,” it added.

In January this year, Sahara had paid around 20 per cent (about Rs 170 crore) of the year’s franchise fee. BCCI was told the team would pay the remaining amount by May 19, but it failed. The governing council then decided to encash the bank guarantee.

This is not the first time BCCI has encashed bank guarantees on franchises failing to pay fees.

Kochi Tuskers Kerala and Deccan Chargers were disbanded after they failed to pay the required fees. The performance of Pune Warriors, which remained in the bottom rung in the three seasons of the league it participated in, remained patchy. Sahara said it was tempted to withdraw from the Indian cricket team’s sponsorship immediately but refrained from doing so in the interest of the players. “There is a very strong urge to withdraw from the Indian cricket team’s sponsorship from today only. But, interest of the players will suffer if we do so,” the group said.

WOUNDED WARRIORS

• 2010: Sahara pays Rs 1,700 cr to buy IPL’s Pune franchise
• Jan 2013: Sahara pays Rs 170 cr (20%) of the franchise fee for the year
• May 19: Deadline to pay the remaining franchise fee
• May 21: Sahara announces withdrawal of Pune Warriors from IPL and discontinuing sponsorship of the Indian cricket team (from year-end)