IPL franchisee owners are clamouring for change.
Fed-up of being short-changed by the non-availability of key players, team honchos have decided to drive changes in the format of the IPL.
“After paying superstars millions of dollars, the least you could expect is that they would be on hand for the duration of the tournament.
But no such luck.”
“National team commitments are deemed more important”, complains a prominent unnamed IPL co-owner.
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Is it the end of the road for the Kochi consortium? A Daily News & Analysis (DNA) report would have us believe so.
Vijay Tagore reports that at a meeting held on Friday, the 12th of November, 2010, the franchisee owners agreed to write to the Board Of Control For Cricket in India (BCCI) to cancel the team.The letter is to be submitted this Monday or Tuesday. This is a good two weeks before the deadline extended by the BCCI.
(Well, if there’s bad news to be had , you might as well receive it early.)
The irreconcilable differences in the cobbled-together-unit could not stand the scrutiny of day. The members’ sole concern is to recover the money and bank guarantee submitted to the Board.The agreement fee was $10 million (Rs. 45 crore) and the bank guarantee Rs. 153 crore , 10 per cent of the team’s worth.
In this case, it does seem a case of a terrible beginning making for an equally tragic ending.
With the IPL imbroglio boiling over and culminating in the expulsion of two teams, Kings XI and Rajasthan Royals, let’s take a quick look at the scenarios that could unfold:
1> The two franchise owners could go to court thus staying the auction of players in Jan 2011. This could have the effect of jeopardising or at the least delaying IPL 4 with two possibilities arising: one that the teams are reinstated and thus IPL 4 goes on as scheduled , with some last-minute patch-ups and glitches.
The other is that the BCCI move is upheld and Raj Kundra and Preity Zinta sustain losses on their investments. The fans of Rajasthan Royals and Punjab XI are left feeling disgruntled and the other franchisee owners are left holding their queasy tummies in the sickening realization that the BCCI is a law unto itself and business motivations can take a backseat.