The fate of IPL franchise Pune Warriors, which has defaulted on its payments to the BCCI, would top the agenda when the Cricket Board's all-powerful working committee meets here tomorrow.
Owned by the Sahara Group, the Pune Warriors have been on collision course with the BCCI after the Board encashed its bank guarantee due to non-payment of franchise fee.
The Sahara group announced its pull-out from the IPL after that even though that is yet to be formally conveyed to the BCCI, which wants the team to furnish a bank guarantee of Rs 170.2 crore to remain part of the league next year.
The BCCI, after reportedly reminding Sahara about the payment several time, is now planning to terminate it from the IPL.
All the governing council members of the IPL have been invited for tomorrow's meeting and the Board is expected to issue a 30-day termination notice to Pune Warriors after consultations tomorrow.
Sahara has been demanding the completion of the arbitration proceedings on the issue of franchise fee, which it feels should be lowered since the BCCI did not deliver on its promised number of IPL matches for the team.
The arbitration process has not yet started because of the differences between BCCI and Sahara over the judges to be appointed for it.
Pune, bought by Sahara for USD 370 million (approx Rs 1702 crore) in 2010, is the most expensive franchise on the IPL roster and its termination would cause substantial financial loss to the BCCI.
It would be interesting to see whether the BCCI decides to bring a new franchise on board or trim the IPL to an eight-team affair.
The working committee will be the first since N Srinivasan took charge as BCCI President after weeks of legal wrangling.
