The Sahara Group, which ended its 11-year association with the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), said the difficulty of continuing a ‘one-sided emotional relationship’ led it to take such a drastic measure. “Sadly, we never found BCCI believing in genuine give and take. We feel such one-sided emotional relationship cannot be dragged any further. We’re withdrawing from all cricket under BCCI,” the group’s statement read.
Subrata Roy insisted their relationship with the BCCI had become so strenuous that it was not possible to continue. “We’ve had enough. Any relationship does not break over a single issue. We had a long relationship. It has to do with many issues, which have all happened over the course of time,” the Sahara chairman said.
The trigger for Sahara’s extreme measure was BCCI’s refusal to have indisposed Yuvraj Singh’s price added to their auction purse.
“Yuvraj is undergoing treatment for a critical illness overseas. We requested the BCCI that we be allowed to add Yuvraj’s price to our auction purse, because we had later taken Sourav Ganguly at $0.4 million. The request was rejected. It is a case of being denied natural justice,” the statement said.
To acquire the Pune franchise, Sahara spent as much as $370 million (Mumbai Indians and Royal Challengers Bangalore paid only $111 million). But the BCCI “did not keep its promise” of holding 94 matches in the league. The company said it resulted in revenue loss.
“The bid price was accordingly calculated but only 74 matches were played. We’re still pursuing the BCCI to refund the extra bid money proportionately. It has been denied on the basis of strict rules,” the company claimed and added: “Our first entry into the IPL was thwarted in 2008 when we were disqualified, owing to a small technicality on the whims and fancies of the BCCI. Our bid was not opened.”
Sahara said its plea to hold an open auction fell on deaf ears and as a result they lost an opportunity to acquire the best players.
“In the interest of the tournament, we repeatedly tried our best to pursue the BCCI for an open auction of all players so that we achieve a level-playing field and all teams are equally balanced from the quality players’ point of view. It was denied. Twelve of the best players were retained by the existing teams then. We requested them to allow us at least one extra foreign player but that too was denied,” Sahara argued.
Sahara contended that on one occasion, it paid the BCCI even after their logo was removed from the Indian team’s jersey. “Once during a World Cup tournament, Sahara’s name was not allowed because there was a clash between our airline and a South African one. In two major tournaments, the team had to play without the ‘Sahara’ logo.
“It was ICC’s decision, so we realised that it was no fault of the BCCI and we also did not want the players to suffer. As per the rules, we were not supposed to pay sponsorship money for those matches but we still paid the players’ share of the amount in entirety. Sadly, we never found BCCI believing in genuine give and take,” Sahara said.
Even at the time of withdrawing Team India sponsorship, Sahara said they would keep the players’ interest in mind. “We don’t want to give any problem to the BCCI and we also feel that the players should not suffer. The BCCI will definitely take two to four months to get a new sponsor and we will continue paying the sponsorship money till then. All other IPL team players, coaches and other such associates will definitely get their due this year, in case they do not get a chance to play,” the company promised.
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