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Double blow for BCCI: Sahara ends sponsorship, quits IPL

BS Reporter / Mumbai Feb 05, 2012, 00:31

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It was a double whammy for the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) on Saturday. Just a few minutes before the auctions for the fifth edition of the Indian Premiere League (IPL) was to begin, the Sahara group snapped its 11-year-old association with the cricket body by withdrawing from the ownership of IPL franchise Pune Warriors and prematurely terminating the sponsorship of the Indian cricket team.

The group had bought the Pune team for Rs 1,700 crore, and its contract to sponsor team India, for which it had agreed to pay Rs 3.34 crore per Test match, one-day international and Twenty20 International, was to end in December 2013.

“It was an emotional decision for us to be associated with cricket, but our emotions were never appreciated, and many genuine situations were not given due consideration. We had had enough. Any relationship does not break on a single issue. We had a long relationship. It has to do with many issues and has happened continuously,” Sahara Group Founder and Chairman Subrato Roy said at a press conference in Mumbai.

WHAT SAHARA’S EXIT MEANS FOR BCCI * The Sahara group has been the sponsor of the Indian cricket team for 11 years. Under the renewed contract, Sahara had agreed to pay Rs 3.34 crore per test match, one-day international and Twenty20 International till December 2013 * In 2010, Sahara bought the IPL’s Pune franchise for Rs 1,700 crore.Of this, the group paid the first instalment of Rs 170 crore in 2010 * According to the group’s chairman, Subrata Roy, Sahara has so far spent Rs 700 crore on cricket

Sahara’s problems with BCCI started in 2008, when its entry into IPL was thwarted on the ground of technical glitches. It entered the annual T20 tournament last year with the information that 94 matches would be played by 10 teams. The bid price was calculated accordingly. However, only 74 matches were played.

“Due to reduction in the number of matches, BCCI has to refund 25 per cent of the installment. We are still continuously pursuing BCCI for the refund of the extra bid money. It has been denied on the basis of strict rules,” Roy added.

The immediate trigger appears to be the unavailability of Yuvraj Singh — bought by the group’s franchise, Pune Warriors, for $1.8 million last year — due to a lung tumour. Sahara on Saturday sought to add the icon player’s price to its auction purse, since the team had only one marquee player. “Again, we have been denied on the basis of the rule book,” said Roy.

Sahara will continue to pay the sponsorship money for a few more months, till BCCI finds another sponsor.

With on Saturday’s developments, BCCI’s efforts to expand the lucrative IPL have come a cropper. Kochi Tuskers Kerala, the second franchise that entered the tournament last year and was later disqualified, yesterday said it would take BCCI to court over termination of its contract.

BCCI made it clear that rules would not be bent for any IPL franchise, but it would still reach out to aggrieved sponsors and Pune Warriors owners, Sahara India, “as soon as practicable to clarify its intentions”.

“We understand that Sahara Adventure Sports Ltd has issued a statement in which it indicates an intention to withdraw from its involvement in the Indian cricket, including IPL. If we understand Sahara Adventure Sports Ltd’s statement, it intends not to participate in the 2012 IPL auction or the season,” said BCCI Secretary Sanjay Jagdale.

BCCI sources said, even as the board might look for an amicable settlement, it was in favour of a tournament with eight teams. Last September, during the BCCI annual general meeting, several board members had favoured the idea of going back to the original format, with fewer teams, owing to a heavy cricket calendar.

Roy said, after withdrawing from cricket, Sahara would put in Rs 1,000 crore in a welfare foundation for social work. “We declare that we would immediately put Rs 500 crore in Sahara Welfare Foundation, which will be run with the association of some of the eminent people of the country. We will develop “twenty rural or semi-urban sports promotional centres,” Roy said. These centres would have facilities to support a variety of sports disciplines — cricket, hockey, soccer, Formula1, tennis, golf, wrestling and boxing.