The onus is on the Hyderabad Cricket Association. If it wants the four matches of the Indian Premier League-V to be held as scheduled this May in the city at Rajiv Gandhi Stadium, it has to first set its house in order with regard to the contentious issue of giving commercial rights to Visaka Group of Industries for the above matches.
HCA president Arshad Ayub had informed the media last week that the Deccan Chargers had given a commitment to clear about Rs.1 crore which is due to the HCA very soon. But the reality is totally different. It is the HCA which has to reimburse Rs.75 lakh to the IPL franchisee which it had paid the Visaka Industries last year because of the group's branding of the stadium and also to ensure there is no disruption in the match schedule because of this last-minute hitch.
In fact, the IPL Chief Executive Officer Sundar Raman in a recent communication has “advised the HCA to reimburse this amount to the Chargers as there cannot be any additional cost to the franchisee as per the tripartite agreement (featuring BCCI, HCA and the IPL franchisee)”.
This agreement meant that the staging association would get Rs.10 lakh per match (it is now increased to Rs.30 lakh for this year's edition), besides a share in the overall ad revenue directly from the BCCI from the entire IPL when the venue is handed over to the franchisee free of any branding for the matches.
“We are not able to understand why Chargers is being dragged unnecessarily into this subject. Let the record be straight. We paid Visaka group Rs. 75 lakh and whatever is due to the HCA already. There is no question of any dues from our side,” says Girish Dongre, general manager of Deccan Chargers.
The problem for HCA was that it entered into an agreement with Visaka Group which gave Rs.7.5 crore towards the construction of Uppal Stadium in lieu of some benefits by way of advertising rights when the IPL was not even conceptualised.
But what surprised Chargers and made BCCI furious is a letter by HCA chief Arshad Ayub to Visaka Group stating: “Two numbers of runner boards each measuring 20 ft X 3 ft length with a total of 40 ft X 3 ft width (logo to be provided by Deccan Chargers), a balloon to be hoisted by you at your cost subject to police approval, and a spot on the electronic giant screen to be repeated often during the match will be provided. “These favours itself cost Chargers about Rs.75 lakh for which we have no such obligations,” says Mr. Dongre.
