THE Board of Control for Cricket in India has served a 30-day termination notice on new Indian Premier League franchise Kochi.
The decision taken by the IPL governing council is seen as one last chance to save the team, which has been dogged by a dispute over ownership issues.
BCCI president Shashank Manohar said after a meeting in Nagpur yesterday that the Kochi franchise’s breach was a remedial one and could not be compared with the violations of the other two teams that had been disqualified from next year’s IPL – the Rajasthan Royals and the Kings XI Punjab.
“The governing council has invoked clause 12(1) against the Kochi team and served a 30-day notice. If they fail to provide a satisfactory reply the franchise would get cancelled on the 31st day. This was an unanimous decision,” Manohar said.
Asked why Rajasthan and the Kings XI were not served a notice before being expelled from the IPL, Manohar said the two cases were different.
“Rajasthan Royals and Kings XI Punjab had changed their shareholding pattern without informing the BCCI,” he explained. “There is no such breach in this instance. There is no transfer of control issue here and this is only a dispute within the owners. Therefore, this is a remedial case.”
The Kochi franchise, which was bought for USD333million at a public auction in March, has been rocked by a dispute between its owners – Rendezvous Sports World, who own 26% of the equity, and an investing group consisting of five corporate firms, who hold the remaining 74%.
In a last-ditch effort to save the franchise ahead of yesterday’s meeting, the two factions had written separate replies on a previous 10-day notice served by the BCCI.
“The two groups had filed separate replies and we discussed both. The board felt that the dispute still exists,” Manohar said.
Meanwhile, Satyajit Gaikwad, a spokesman for the Rendezvous Sports World Private Limited, expressed hope the dispute would be sorted out soon.
“We are thankful that they have given us enough time to tie up our differences,” he told NDTV. “We had asked for a grace period of 10 days but we got 30, so I am sure we will do it at the earliest.”(ESPN Cricinfo)