BCCI asked to pay Kochi Tuskers who say let us play IPL
The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has been asked to pay Rs 550 crore to IPL franchise Kochi Tuskers. This was after an arbitration ruled in favour of the erstwhile Season 4 team recently.
But it is learnt that Kochi is not interested in the money anymore and want their team fielded in the next IPL season. The IPL currently has eight teams and the BCCI at the moment is in no mood to add one more team to its IPL table.
In 2011, the Tuskers’ contract was terminated by the BCCI because of an alleged breach of contract by the Kochi franchise. The BCCI had then decided to encash the bank guarantee given by Kochi Tuskers and also terminated the IPL contract of the franchise.
The matter went for arbitration to R C Lahoti, former Chief Justice of India, and the decision has now gone in favour of Kochi Tuskers. It is reliably learnt that BCCI has been asked to pay Rs 550 crore to Kochi Tuskers and should they fail to, then 18 per cent of the penalty will be charged annually.
“The BCCI is going for legal opinion on this and we will see if we can challenge it in the High Court. The decision has come as a setback to us but we are looking at all possibilities,” a BCCI official told The Indian Express.
“They want their IPL team to be restored from next season. We will have to explore all legal options before saying anything more on this,” the official added.
Kochi was formed with a consortium of five companies put together by Rendezvous Sports World which bid for the city franchise for Rs 1560 crore, the second highest bid after Pune Warriors.
In 2011, BCCI had asked Kochi to submit a fresh bank guarantee which they failed to do for six months and later the Indian board felt it had every right to terminate the contract as the franchise had breached its terms of agreement.
Kochi then had paid nearly Rs 340 crore to BCCI but before terminating their contract, the board encashed their bank guarantee of Rs 156 crore which Kochi objected to. The players didn’t receive part-payments and foreign players were asked by BCCI to move court against Kochi Tuskers. Till date, many players, including Muttiah Muralitharan, have pending dues.
