The IPL's Kochi franchise has been served a termination notice by the BCCI but has been given a 30-day deadline to respond and explain why it should not be scrapped. The decision was taken unanimously by the IPL's governing council, meeting in Nagpur on Wednesday morning.
"The governing council received replies from two parties, the Rendezvous group and the other co-owners, and they both felt that the dispute still exists," Shashank Manohar, the BCCI president, said. If they don't remedy these disputes in the 30 days, the franchise would stand cancelled on the 31st day."
April 11: Consortium winning the Kochi franchise gives the BCCI an agreement listing seven investors.August 19: BCCI receives a letter from Rendezvous Sports World raising questions over the agreement vis-a-vis equity shares and seeking board's approval to amend the share-holding structure.September 9: Sunanda Pushkar informs the board that she has transferred 190 shares in Rendezvous Sports to Pushpa Gaikwad.September 16: Rendezvous informs the board that Satyajit Gaekwad - appointed CEO - would be the sole point of contact for the company and, in a second letter, asks it to ignore any requests from "any of the other consortium members" to modify share-holding pattern.September 23: Chintan Vora writes saying he, Vipul Shah and Saket Mehta are the only people authorised to represent the business.September 25: Vora writes again saying that Kochi Cricket Pvt. Ltd. would be formed to take over the franchise from existing entity.September 29: BCCI president Shashank Manohar sends show-cause notice to the franchise saying the board is concerned that the internal dispute will damage the IPL and asks for document saying dispute has been resolved and a company will be incorporated in a fixed timeframe.October 27: The BCCI issues a termination notice to the Kochi franchise but gives it a 30-day deadline to reply, explaining why it shouldn't be scrapped.
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Satyajit Gaikwad, of the Rendezvous Group, however, welcomed the extension and was confident that the factions within the consortium would make peace. "They have given us enough time to tie up our differences and come in a unified way and rise up to the expectations of the BCCI," he told NDTV. "I'm sure we should be able to do that at the earliest. If we don't tie up within 30 days we don't deserve to be in the IPL. We had asked for a period of 10 days, the board has given us 30 days."
It brings to a head a long-running dispute both between Kochi and the IPL, and within the franchise, over its ownership pattern. Details of that ownership pattern were first revealed by Lalit Modi, the former IPL chairman, in April, triggering a series of events that eventually led to his ouster from the league.
The emergency meeting was convened by Manohar due to the lingering dispute over who would run the affairs of the franchise, bought from the Cricket Board for USD 333 million, once the joint venture was formed.
The investors in the Kochi consortium include corporate firms Anchor Earth, Parinee Developers, Rosy Blue and Film Wave - which hold 74 per cent of the equity. The remaining 26 per cent has been given to the family of Gaekwads - Shailendra, his brother Ravi and their parents plus a few others, all part of Rendezvous Sports World - as free equity for services rendered in successfully bidding for the franchise.
The IPL has already terminated the agreements of the Rajasthan Royals and Kings XI Punjab franchises, which leaves the league with seven teams as of now.
Asked why Kochi had been given more time when Rajasthan and Punjab had been summarily ejected from the league, Manohar said those two cases were different from Kochi. "This not an intermediary breach that has been committed, as in the case of Rajasthan and Punjab, that is why they have been given 30 days to remedy this," he said. "There was transfer of ownership as far as Rajasthan Royals and Kings XI Punjab were concerned but not as far as Kochi is concerned."
The news puts into jeopardy the IPL player auction, scheduled to be held sometime in November. This auction is likely to be similar to the first, with teams starting from scratch; however, the rules have yet to be formalised.
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