Tuskers don’t want the money though, want back in the IPL.
By Dileep Thekkethil
BENGALURU: It’s not a secret that the Indian Premier League (IPL) is losing its popularity season after season of late and this is forcing the BCCI to cut the number of matches. Today, the BCCI received a mighty blow when a court ordered it to repay Rs. 550 crore ($80.6 million) to the defunct IPL franchise, Kochi Tuskers.
According to sources, the Kochi Tusker franchise is least interested in the money and wants to come back to the field in the next IPL season – a need that is totally against the current disposition of the BCCI which had made it clear that they will stick with eight teams. The cricketing board of India has to now take a decision on whether to repay the amount or challenge it in a higher court.
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The dispute between BCCI and Kochi Tuskers was heard by the former Chief Justice of India RC Lahoti who favoured the Tuskers and ordered the other party to pay the hefty amount, failing which the Indian cricket board will have to pay a penalty of 18% annually.
A BCCI official was quoted by The Indian Express saying that it’s a setback for the board.
“The BCCI is going for a legal opinion on this and we will see if we can challenge it in the High Court. The decision has come as a setback to us, but we are looking at all possibilities,” the source said.
The BCCI had in 2011 terminated Kochi Tuskers from its franchise owing to the non-payment of bank guarantee. The ousting of the Kerala team from the lucrative IPL business was on the same year that it first participated in the IPL.
The original shareholders of Kochi Tuskers were – Rendezvous Sports World (26%), Parinee Developers (26%), Anchor Earth (27%), Film Waves (12%), Anand Shyam (8%), and Vivek Venugopal (1%).