Published>Thu, Oct 28 10 06:38 AM
The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) have decided to put the Kochi IPL franchise on incubator, providing the beleaguered consortium with breathing space for the next 30 days. Following an emergency IPL governing council meeting held in Nagpur on Wednesday, the board served a termination notice to the franchise, giving them a 30-day deadline to settle their internal disputes or get scrapped.
The governing council had received replies from the two parties, the Rendezvous group and the other co-owners, on Tuesday evening, and the board took their eventual decision only after finding that the differences between the groups within the franchise still existed, revealed BCCI president Shashank Manohar.
"The governing council has invoked clause 12 (1) and given them a termination notice that in case they don't remedy these disputes in the 30 days, the franchise would stand cancelled on the 31st day," he said.
While it has been learnt that many council members were keen to terminate the Kochi franchise's existing contract, the board's decision to provide them with an extension didn't come about due to any sort of benevolence. But rather as a result of a clause in the contract, which ensured that the franchise had to be allotted a 30-day period before it was scrapped.
Asked about why Rajasthan Royals and Kings XI Punjab, were shown the exit without even receiving show-cause notices, Manohar explained that there wasn't an intermediary breach of contract in Kochi's case as compared to Rajasthan and Punjab.
"The cases are totally different. In the case of the other two teams, there was a transfer of ownership that took place without our permission and thus they broke a rule. But this is a remedial breach and that is why the Kochi franchise has been given 30 days to sort out the matter," he said.
The investors in the consortium owning the Kochi franchise have been divided as a result of their discrepancies into two groups, the Gaekwad family, who own the Rendezvous Sports World Private Limited, on one side and all the remaining stakeholders, Anchor Earth, Parinee Developers, Rosy Blue and Film Wave, Anand Shyam Estate Developers and Vivek Venugopal ? who hold 75 per cent of the equity in the opposition.
Not surprisingly, Satyajit Gaekwad, CEO of Rendezvous, welcomed the board's decision with delight but insisted that they won't compromise on their 25 per cent holding in the franchise.
"Rendezvous is, in uncertain terms, clear that we will never come down from 25 per cent equity. But in case of the free equity, we are ready to bring in the money and review it from 25 per cent to 12.5 per cent as agreed by investors and the board and we have minuted the details and sent it to BCCI. We have requested them to give us permission to make structural changes," he explained.
He also revealed that Rendezvous had received permission from the consortium on the same and that they would proceed to put in the investment for 12.5 per cent. Gaekwad also added that Rendezvous had already given a cheque in lieu with those financial terms to the consortium. And with the BCCI having given them a 30-day grace period, he said that there was enough time for all the parties to resolve their differences and present an unified front to the board and the governing council.
The BCCI, however, insisted in not being concerned about former Indian captain Sunil Gavaskar's links with the Kochi franchise. "What discussion took place between Mr Gavaskar and Mr (Satyajit) Gaekwad is known only to Mr Gavaskar and Mr Gaekwad, the BCCI does not know. We are not aware of that and we are not an investigative agency."
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