Thaindian News

Mumbai, April 16 (IANS) Unknown billionaires from mofussil Maharashtra have suddenly come into focus with the recent controversies involving the Indian Premier League (IPL) Kochi franchise.
The names of two - Shailendra Gaikwad from Solapur and his friend Jayant Kotalwar from Latur, but living in Silicon Valley - as investors in the Rs.1,500 crore IPL Kochi franchise have raised more than just eyebrows.

Not that the duo is new to cricket. In fact, Gaikwad has already had a “mini-IPL” experience in the form of the Solapur Premier League (SPL), a local cricket tourney hosted by young Congress legislator Praniti Shinde and the Solapur Congress in August.

The SFL trophy won in the tourney occupies a pride of place in Gaikwad’s huge but modest bungalow in Solapur, presented by Praniti, daughter of Union Power Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde.

Information gleaned from various sources revealed that prior to that, Gaikwad was locally famous as the man who flew down cricket maestro Sachin Tendulkar to Solapur five years ago to attend his youngest sister Pratibha’s wedding.

While Pratibha is a London-based gynaecologist, her elder brother Ravi is Assistant Regional Transport Officer (RTO) at Andheri in Mumbai. Currently, he is under cloud following his alleged involvement in a one billion rupees imported motorcycles scam.

However, Gaikwad has shot into big time following Indian Minister of State For External Affairs Shashi Tharoor and IPL commissioner Lalit Modi’s Twitter fracas.

Gaikwad earned new respect though his parents - Kishanrao and Pushpa - hold 70 percent of the 25 percent free equity in the IPL Kochi team along with him and Sunanda Pushkar.

The Gaikwad family has stoutly denied allegations that Tendulkar has anything to do with IPL Kochi though he is on their “wishlist” in next year’s IPL shopping extravaganza.

While nobody is willing to guess how the Gaikwads have rolled into millions, Kishanrao was a senior officer in the state irrigation department, and Shailendra, a mechanical engineer, used to run an automobile service, while Ravi is a senior RTO officer in Mumbai.

According to reports, the eight investor-partners in IPL Kochi have divided the stakes as per their individual investments. While RSW holds 26 percent, Anchor has 27 percent, Parinee 26 percent, Filmallas 12 percent, builder Anand Shyam eight percent and Kochi businessman Vivek Venugopal one percent.

Kotalwar, hailing from Latur, neighbouring Solapur, shares Shailendra Gaikwad’s passion for cricket - way out in Silicon Valley, US, where he is based and works with Alcatel Lucent.

Incidentally, his elder brother Hemant Kotalwar, an Indian Foreign Service officer, is currently attached with Minister of State for External Affairs Preneet Kaur and is a friend of Shailendra’s younger brother, Ravi.

The duo had always dreamt of making it “big” in cricket and the opportunity came in the form of the IPL Kochi team, according to sources.

Kotalwar, a BITS Pilani computer science engineer who went to US 11 years ago, had been playing cricket since his school days in 1980 and currently plays for his company’s team in Silicon Valley Bay area.

The Gaikwad-Kotalwar duo hit upon the idea of bidding for IPL-III, and started hunting for prospective investors in the US. But, finally, it was Gaikwad who managed to put all other investors together.

According to reports. 1.6 percent of the 25 percent free equity in Kochi IPL, estimated at around Rs.5.8 crore, it is believed, will start reaping benefit from the third year - or around 2013.