The BCCI's Working Committee will be briefed about Sahara Group's decision to withdraw from the sponsorship of the Indian team and issues relating to the Indian Premier League (IPL) when its members meet in Chennai on Monday (February 13).
After a meeting between the BCCI and IPL officials, and representatives of Sahara here on Sunday, N. Srinivasan, President, BCCI, and Subrata Roy, Chairman, Sahara Group, issued a statement, saying: “Sahara and BCCI met on Sunday and discussed all the outstanding issues and it was agreed that the subject will be further discussed in the BCCI Working Committee meeting on Monday.
The interaction focused on the interest of Indian cricket, including the IPL.'' The BCCI was represented by Srinivasan, Rajiv Shukla (chairman, IPL), Ajay Shirke (treasurer), Sanjay Jagdale (secretary) and Sundar Raman (CEO, IPL).
Sahara Group was represented by Subrata Roy, Sushanto Roy (managing director, Sahara Adventure Sports) and Abhijit Sarkar (head, corporate communications).
Revise franchise fee
A source in the thick of developments said that Sahara reiterated its view that the franchise fee — it won the Pune franchise for $370 million for 10 years in 2010 — be revised.
Sahara has claimed that it entered the IPL on the basis of information in the media and everywhere else that 94 matches will be played among 10 teams and accordingly calculated the bid price, but eventually only 74 matches were played.
It appears that Sahara has asked the BCCI to reduce the franchise fee by around 27 per cent due to this.
It's also learnt that it is keen on bringing in a strategic partner team and also field five overseas players in a match.
