Honchos may also name NCA director and announce SRT's farewell plans.
The all-powerful working committee of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) will meet in Chennai on Saturday to decide the fate of the Sahara Pune Warriors.
Sources say the board is “adamant” about terminating the Indian Premier League franchise because it has refused to pay the franchise fee of Rs 170.2 crore for the forthcoming season. It may be recalled that Sahara Indian Pariwar had purchased the Pune franchise for Rs 1,702 crore in 2010, and must shell out the money over a period of 10 years.
It is also understood that all members of the IPL governing council have been invited for Saturday’s meeting. The franchise may be slapped with a 30-day termination notice.
The BCCI is keen on kick-starting its preparations for IPL 7 and needs to know whether the Pune franchise “wants to stay on board or pull out”.
A Pune Warriors official told this paper that the franchise is “least bothered”.
“These are pressure tactics. Let them do whatever they want. We will not pay the money. None of our concerns have been addressed. The same thing happened in 2012 too. And when we decided to end our sponsorship deal with the Indian team and pull out of the IPL, the BCCI budged. All top officials camped at the Sahara Star Hotel in Mumbai for five days. Now, it’s back to square one,” he said.
The franchise has been demanding the completion of the arbitration proceedings on the issue of franchise fee, which it feels should be lowered because the number of matches was brought down from 94 to 76.
The BCCI is also expected to name the director of the National Cricket Academy in Bangalore.
Rahul Dravid’s name is doing the rounds and sources say the BCCI had entrusted Karnataka State Cricket Association president Anil Kumble with the job of “convincing” his former national and state mate to take up the job. Kumble may have just succeeded. Indian cricket will, of course, stand to benefit if Dravid says yes.
The BCCI is also likely to discuss “how to felicitate Sachin Tendulkar”. The Mumbai Cricket Association and the Cricket Association of Bengal are doing all they can to make Tendulkar’s exit memorable, but the board has yet to decide how to honour the maestro. Things will be clear after Saturday’s meeting.
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