On the eve of the 10th edition of the IPL, former BCCI president and ICC Chairman N. Srinivasan revealed that the decision to buy Chennai Super Kings had the blessings of both the IPL chairman and Board president at that time.
Srinivasan’s decision to buy the team raised conflict of interest issues since he was an office-bearer of the BCCI then.
In 2015, CSK was suspended for two years after one of the team officials was involved in the corruption scandal that marred the 2013 edition.
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Delivering the keynote address at the Madras Advertising Club’s annual awards function here on Friday, Srinivasan said, “We received an invitation from the then chairman of IPL (Lalit Modi) asking whether India Cements would bid. So I took this letter and wrote to the then BCCI president Mr (Sharad) Pawar asking if we can bid since I was the BCCI treasurer and MD and promoter of India Cements. In the many controversies that surrounded CSK later, although everyone knew this story they chose to ignore it.”
He added, “I get a reply from Mr Pawar, saying that ‘I have consulted all my colleagues and there is no bar on India Cements taking the tender and bidding for an IPL team’. This was in writing and following all due processes, the BCCI was asked and we went ahead.”
Srinivasan who was speaking on the topic of brand building, spoke about the process of getting CSK together, and heaped praise on M.S. Dhoni.
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“Before the first auction, we told the group that was sitting there to get Dhoni at any price.
“Though people criticise CSK and make allegations, its followers have only grown.
“The proof is wherever I go, thanks to the power of CSK, there is not a single place where people don’t want to come and take a selfie with me. How did we get there? The first truly game-changing decision was to get Dhoni on board. He had won the World T20 in 2007 in his own style, and was different from the others.”
Elaborating on the growth of Brand CSK, the 72-year old said, “An aura developed around the team because of its performance and its captain who was growing in stature. He adopted the city and vice-versa.
“The Tamil anthem, the colour yellow, the ‘whistle podu’ song, along with Dhoni, helped build the CSK brand. We have not been part of the IPL for two years, but that has not affected the brand one bit.”
Srinivasan also said that CSK was unfairly banned. “You can accuse anybody of anything but you can’t accuse a single player. They just played. It was just pure jealousy.”
With CSK’s two-year suspension ending later in the year, Srinivasan said the one thing he was looking forward to was seeing “M.S. Dhoni, wearing yellow and leading the CSK team onto the ground and come 2018 there is every possibility of it happening. We will be back with a bang.”