The impasse between Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) and Sahara India continued on Monday with the board, whose working committee met on the same day, saying it would not make an exception for the Sahara's Pune Warriors IPL franchise. N Srinivasan, the BCCI president, said the board had sent a proposal to Sahara but did not mention the details.Sahara is yet to respond to the proposal but the company's officials have made formally public the concerns they raised at yesterday's meeting with the BCCI top brass in Mumbai. These include a replacement player for Yuvraj Singh, who is expected to miss the entire 2012 season; the holding of a players' auction next year to level the playing field; a 27% reduction in their annual franchise fee; finding a strategic partner for the franchise; and the fact that Sahara was the only franchise owner asked for a bank guarantee for the franchise fee.
These grievances, Srinivasan said, had been "communicated" to the working committee and the response was positive but "within the framework of its rules." The board, he said, "cannot create an exception because observance of the regulation strictly is important to the integrity of the league."
Asked if the IPL was willing to accept Sahara's request to allow a replacement for Yuvraj Singh in the Pune Warriors, Srinivasan said that was possible. "I am told, as per the rules, Sahara can have a replacement for Yuvraj. That is not an issue."
With regard to the issue of Sahara's decision to pull out of its sponsorship of the Indian team, Srinivasan said the board had adequate sponsors. "Sponsors are not going away; in any contractual arrangements you will have to arrange to provide the possibility for change. I don't think it is fair to say that the BCCI is losing money - it has not lost any money. For the properties that we have, I think, we had adequate sponsors now. We may have a problem with the sponsors. We have shown that we will walk the extra mile to show that feeling for the sponsor. But I do not think one has to be concerned that there will be no sponsors."
Sahara, meanwhile, released a two-page document elaborating on the issues that were discussed at Sunday's meeting. (Read complete points of discussion as released by Sahara here)
The first request dealt with the replacement for Yuvraj Singh, who is currently being treated for cancer. Sahara said it proposed an open auction of players in 2013 to ensure a level playing field; till then, it said, the team should be allowed one extra foreign player in the playing XI.
It also said it had bid for the franchise - eventually paying $370 million - on the basis of a 94-match IPL, but only 74 games were played last season. Accordingly, it had sought a 27% cut in its annual franchise fee. "Considering the reduced number of matches that actually took place against the earlier representation of BCCI before tendering for the new Franchise, we have ended up bidding 27% extra if we go by the revenues that we would have accrued from media rights, gate receipts, sponsorship revenue etc. There has to be a reduction in the Franchise Fee as per the above," the statement said.
Sahara's other key demand concerned the bank guarantee it was paying to the BCCI against the franchise fee. Roy is believed to have told Srinivasan that it was "discriminatory" to ask the Warriors to pay the bank guarantee when none of the original eight franchises did the same.
Source:http://sports.ndtv.com/cricket/news/item/185338-bcci-sahara-standoff-continues-cricket-boards-offer-rejected
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