High-handed BCCI leaves no room for flexibility

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If the Board of Control for Cricket in India had its way then the Indian Premier League by now, may well have been just a six-team affair.

In 2008, the Twenty20 extravaganza exploded on to the stage with eight teams before it was expanded to 10 in 2010, with Sahara Pune Warriors and Kochi Tuskers Kerala whipping up highest bid amounts to get on to the cash-rich bandwagon.

But since then a few of the franchises have been riddled with one problem after another with the high-handedness of the IPL Governing Council being cited as the main reason.

In October 2010, the BCCI terminated the contracts of Rajasthan Royals and Kings XI Punjab proclaiming them guilty of violating the franchise agreement. But both the franchisees took the legal route and were reinstated just before the IPL-4 auctions after arbitrators ruled in their favour.

Then after the two new franchisees came into existence, the issue become even more topsy-turvy. The Kochi franchisee were constantly in the BCCI’s radar and they eventually expelled them last year citing ‘irremediable breach’ of their contract which had become ‘irreparable’.

Now as the Kochi consortium is looking to launch a legal battle, with one of the team’s co-owners, Rendezvous Sports World Pvt. Ltd, expected to go to court in a couple of days in one last attempt at reviving their team, the BCCI is bracing itself for another legal tangle.

All this pales into insignificance for the unyielding cricket board as Saturday’s withdrawal of long-standing sponsor/ partner Sahara has dealt a huge body blow in a move that could have wider ramifications, financially.

It’s the end of a one-sided emotional 11-year journey, said Sahara chairman Subrata Roy and the BCCI, seemingly unmoved initially, is now making overtures to the Sahara conglomerate. “There’s no doubt that the BCCI takes lots of decisions without taking the franchisees into consideration. Mr. Roy has put it aptly when he said the relationship with BCCI is one-sided. But thankfully, for us there is judicial system that we can rely on,” said a top-level franchise official on condition of anonymity.

On a number of occasions in the past, many of the IPL franchises have openly questioned whether the board respects the rights of all the league's stakeholders.

At one stage, Royal Challengers Bangalore owner Vijay Mallya, who has served on various committees in the board, had gone to the extent of asking if the franchisees were merely slaves of the BCCI.

If Sahara sticks to its decision the board just doesn’t stand out to lose a massive chunk of financial stability, it will also will find it difficult to replace the long-standing sponsor. As of now, the BCCI stands to lose approximately Rs 2500 crore from the pullout.

Sahara, though, is ready for a compromise but it’s the BCCI, which has to buckle down and come to the table. At a time when the Indian team is going through a transformation period not to speak of the battering, the BCCI needs to chart out a road map for the betterment of the game in the country rather than be entangled in legal battles.

The ball is in BCCI’s court!

When court came to Punjab’s rescue

Two years ago when Kings XI Punjab and the Rajasthan Royals were involved in a protracted battle with the cricket board following their termination from the league, Preity Zinta and Shilpa Shetty took the issue to the court and were fortunate enough to be reinstated following a favourable arbitration.

A senior Kings XI official recalled the tough days when the board was insistent on keeping the two franchisees out of the league.

“It was a very difficult period for Kings XI Punjab but we struck it out together throughout the crisis. Thankfully, in India there is a judicial system and we can knock on the doors of it when in need of justice. And in our case, the court ruled in our favour and we always knew that would be the case,” said the KXIP official.