At least three franchisees of the Indian Premier League are on the back foot after the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) delivered a googly in the form of an emergency meeting on Sunday. The meeting will discuss the ownership row and other alleged irregularities by Kochi, Kings XI Punjab and Rajasthan Royals.
The meeting comes a few days after BCCI President Shashank Manohar told reporters that there are several irregularities and breach of terms and conditions of the IPL franchise agreement. All the three errant franchisees need to get their house in order before the next player auctions are held in November.
According to BCCI, when the bid for the Kochi team was submitted, it was given by individuals who came together. They were then issued directives to form a company as a franchise cannot be in the name of individuals. "We had asked them to form a company. There is a dispute among five members of the consortium. Both the groups of the consortium have requested BCCI not to recognise the other. We cannot deal with two groups," Manohar said.
In view of this, a notice was issued to Kochi to incorporate the joint venture within 10 days or face action. "We have to finalise the decisions before the auctions. Franchisee withdrawal would depend on their replies. We will play with eight or nine teams (if necessary)," he said. Sources familiar with the developments said BCCI will take stern action, at least against Kochi which might also lead to scrapping the franchise.
This year, two new franchises were added to IPL, which took the total number of teams to 10. While the Pune franchise was won by the Sahara Group for $370 million, Kochi franchise was bagged by a consortium of bidders for $333 million. In the event the Kochi franchise being scrapped, Videocon Group might get to own the franchise as it was the third highest bidder at $320 million in the auction.
BCCI had a few days back snapped its ties with suspended IPL chairman Lalit Modi. While interim chairman Chirayu Amin was appointed the new chairman, Rajiv Shukla replaced Modi as the vice-president from Central Zone.
In an announcement after its annual general meeting on September 29, BCCI had said the IPL Governing Council was overhauled. While Arun Jaitley and Ravi Shastri were retained, former cricketer Sunil Gavaskar and Punjab Cricket Association President Inderjit Singh Bindra were dropped; Anurag Thakur, Ajay Shirke and Ranjib Biswal were the new inclusions.
