As if the debacles in Australia and England are not enough to give headaches to the country’s cricket authorities, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) is now faced with bigger trouble. The pullout by Sahara from its Team India sponsorship as well as the Indian Premier League (IPL) is an earthquake of sorts in the cricket world. As a result, Indian cricket is unlikely to be able to flex its financial muscle quite so much in the future.
The immediate fallout of the Sahara decision is that the cash-rich IPL has plunged into a deep abyss. With the 10-team league already reduced to a nine-team competition — following the termination of Kochi Tuskers Kerala — the Sahara withdrawal pushes the league back to its shaky original format of eight teams.
Tangibly, there are myriad setbacks to the league, the foremost being revamp of the draw which was already made for a nine-team set-up. Intangibly, the loss to the league is immense. It will have to deal with severe battering to the brand IPL.
The Sahara decision is in line with a sequence of setbacks, like termination of Rajasthan Royals, Kings XI Punjab (which are locked in a legal battle with the BCCI), withdrawal of sponsors like Maxx Mobile, and elimination of Kochi. The IPL has gone from bad to worse since the banishment of its highly controversialchairman Lalit Modi.
Sahara alleged ill-treatment and high-handed behaviour by the BCCI, but the immediate trigger was IPL’s refusal to allow them to add Yuvraj Singh’s price ($1.8 million) to the auction purse for Saturday’s sale following withdrawal of Yuvraj from the fifth edition of the tournament. “They had amended rules by allowing a side to have five foreign players in their line-up. They could have extended this concession,” said Subroto Roy, Sahara supremo. “Whilst all within the IPL and BCCI have sympathy for Yuvraj, it is unable to vary the player regulations. The rules are very clear and are consistent with previous seasons,” the BCCI said.
The immediate challenge for the BCCI is to either find a new owner to manage the ninth team or revisit the whole IPL 5 format.Turn to
There are 76 matches in the April 4-May 27 tournament. The other challenge is to find a way to accommodate Sahara Pune Warriors players in IPL 5. Saturday’s auction absorbed some of the Kochi players.
The other big challenge for the BCCI is to find a sponsor for Team India, which has been flaunting the Sahara logo for the last 11 years. There have not been too many takers for Indian cricket’s property lately —- there were no buyers for its mobile and internet rights. Sahara pays Rs3.3 crore per international fixture.
On Saturday evening, Roy said he is not rigid and would make any concession for the sake of his players, but the ball is in the BCCI’s court.
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