Will BCCI and Sahara patch up?

MUMBAI: Blow hot, blow cold. That could be the approach of Sahara India as it announced that it would walk out of the Indian Premier League (IPL) and withdraw from all sponsorships under India?s cricket board, while founder-promoter Subroto Roy indicated later in the day that a reconciliation could be possible if the BCCI adopted a flexible approach.

"We are not rigid," was the quick response from Roy during a press conference when asked whether there is ground for reconciliation. Roy also said that he will think "twice" about his decision if there is player?s interest at stake.

Will the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) and the Sahara Group reconcile? Well, that could or could not be a possibility but if the noises emanating from both sides is any indication, then a patch-up is not that difficult a task. After all, there is a lot at stake for both parties.

Talking to Indiantelevision.com, IPL chairman Rajeev Shukla said that the BCCI is open to reconciliation with the Sahara Group, which had bought the IPL Pune franchise for a whopping $370 million and sponsored the Indian team at a fee of Rs 33 million per Test match, ODI and T20.

The BCCI, of which IPL is a sub-committee, has not received any official notice from the Sahara Group on termination of contract.

"Whatever we have heard is through the media. We haven?t received any notice from them," said Shukla.

"They have been our partners for a long time, we can sort out the differences with them (Sahara)," he added, while stressing that the IPL cannot change rules for just one franchise.

He also found comparison between Champions League and IPL unfair since the two are different tournaments altogether. IPL is a qualifying tournament for CL T20, which involves top clubs from six cricket playing nations.

Sahara had in a media statement stated that the BCCI had bended rules during last year?s CL T20 by allowing Mumbai Indians to replace their injured Indian player with a foreigner which meant that the team fielded five foreign players instead of the rules permitting only four to be part of the final eleven.

The company had requested the BCCI to allow it to carry the prize purse of Yuvraj Singh, who has been ruled out of IPL season 5 due to lung tumour, into the players auction which the BCCI flatly refused thereby triggering a strong reaction from the Lucknow headquartered group.

The IPL chairman said that the BCCI would have given the same concession to any other IPL team who had qualified for Champions League if they had been confronted with the same situation.

"That is not just Mumbai Indians. We would allow other franchises in Champions League to avail that facility, but IPL is a different case. They (Sahara) should not compare IPL with Champions League," Shukla affirmed.

Shukla also hinted that the IPL might go back to the original format if things don?t work with Sahara. "The IPL was originally an eight team event and was quite successful," Shukla revealed.

Earlier in the afternoon, Roy indicated that Sahara would be accommodative if the BCCI changed its inflexible approach. He was responding to a question at a press conference held in Mumbai.

Roy then went on to recount instances wherein the company went out of its way to accommodate BCCI?s requests which the latter never reciprocated.

Sahara had issued a statement in the morning stating that it was unhappy with the BCCI due to the fact that they haven?t taken into consideration any of its suggestion like having an open player auction, which according to Roy would have given all the teams an even playing field and strengthened the IPL.

He was also annoyed with the fact that they had to pay the same franchise fee despite the BCCI cutting down on the number of matches to 74 instead of the 94 matches that was promised during franchise auctions.

Roy believes the franchise was paying 25 per cent more franchise fee due to the cutting down of total matches. The company had also requested the BCCI to take the matter to an arbitrator and sort it out but the BCCI refused.

He also clarified that the company?s decision to back out of Team India?s sponsorship had nothing to do with team India?s performance, but more with the fact that it did not want to deal with a body with which it had fallen out.

Meanwhile, the BCCI in a statement today made it clear that rules would not be bent for any IPL franchise. It would, however, still reach out to its long-term partner "as soon as practicable to clarify its intentions".

"We understand that Sahara Adventure Sports Limited has issued a statement in which it indicates an intention to withdraw from its involvement in Indian cricket, including as regards the Indian Premier League. We intend to contact Sahara Adventure Sports Limited as soon as practicable to clarify its intentions," BCCI Secretary Sanjay Jagdale said in a statement.

"If we understand Sahara Adventure Sports Limited?s statement, it intends not to participate in the 2012 IPL Auction or in the 2012 IPL Season," the statement added.

"During the last few days Sahara Adventure Sports Limited has requested that IPL vary its Player Regulations by allowing it to increase its Auction Purse from $1.6 million to $3.4 million in light of Yuvraj Singh?s unfortunate illness. Whilst all within IPL and BCCI have a huge amount of sympathy for Yuvraj Singh and wish him all the best for a speedy recovery, it is unable to vary the Player Regulations," the BCCI insisted.