While the IPL Governing Council would engage Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi, Sunil Gavaskar and Ravi Shastri on all cricketing matters of the IPL, the ten franchises were given an opportunity to put across their views to the senior officials of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) here on Thursday.
Recently the BCCI President Shashank Manohar said that the three former India captains — all three are members of the IPL GC — would decide on the player salary cap per team, format of the tournament from 2011, the option to the first eight franchises to retain a specific number of Indian and overseas players, reserve price for the player auction and also the strategic time out period.
Information trickling out of the meeting at the Cricket Centre conveyed a division of sorts among the franchises with a speculated majority pitching for an altogether fresh auction of all players, raising the team budget from $7 million to $9 million and going along with the planned expansion of 94 matches from IPL season IV. These were the points highlighted by Vijay Mallya of Royal Challengers, Bangalore. Representatives of franchises appear to have impressed upon the BCCI to retain the glamour quotient.
Sources revealed that the Mumbai Indians and Chennai Super Kings are not likely to fall in line with the ‘fresh auction of all the players' suggestion. Perhaps the BCCI officials were also surprised by the change in attitude of a few franchises who had agreed to the seven player cap (three overseas and four Indian players) at an earlier franchise meeting in Bangkok.
First interaction
Thursday's meeting was the first interaction between the BCCI and the franchises, but without Lalit Modi who has been suspended by the BCCI for alleged acts of irregularities on several counts. The BCCI will provide more opportunities to the franchises to come up with views, but it will call the shots eventually, guided by the recommendations of Pataudi, Gavaskar, Shastri on cricket-related matters. The IPL GC is set to meet here on Friday.
Manohar told the franchise representatives that the IPL and franchises have suffered a loss of $ 80 million because of the facilitation fee deal between Multi Screen Media (MSM) and World Sports Group (WSG) Mauritius and an estimated Rs. 20 crore from Viacom 18 — the broadcast partner of the IPL entertainment — which was to produce ‘IPL Fear Factor' involving Indian cricketers.
IPL had signed the contract without taking consent from the players. Without specifying, Manoharalso conveyed to the representatives, there are issues related to the franchises, too.
ECB's request
Meanwhile, the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) has asked the BCCI to provide details of the IPL schedule for three years from 2011 to 2013, date of the player auction in 2011 and the time-frame for player contracts in order to avoid a eleventh hour negotiations with County teams.
The ECB has pointed out that the IPL clashes with its international and domestic tournaments and the mandatory No Objection Certificate (NOC) involves the franchise, players, ECB and County teams.
The ECB has specifically asked for the minimum number of matches franchises would insist upon in order to be in the player auction list. The ECB has explained that in the absence of a firm international programme and the schedule for the next three years, it would be hard pressed to confirm player availability for the auction. It has asked the BCCI to furnish copies of the player contract and auction agreement for the next three years.
