Thaindian News

New Delhi, April 15 (IANS) The saga around the ownership of Indian Premier League’s (IPL) Kochi franchise took a new turn with the owners attacking Gujarat chief minister Narandra Modi for pressurising them to give up their rights and former Indian cricket board president Sharad Pawar, an union minister, advising the stake holders to stay put in Kerala.
Satyajit Gaekwad, spokesperson of the Rendezvous Sports World, which is a member of the consortium that won the franchise for Rs.1530 crore, said the stake holders were being pressurised by the IPL supremo Lalit Modi, on the insistence of Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi, to give up their rights so that they can shift the franchise to Ahmedabad.

“Lalit Modi is trying to please Narendra Modi and asked the stake-holders to give up their rights so that the franchise could be shifted to Ahmedabad. The distressed stake holders then went to Mr. Pawar, who gave them his blessings and asked them to stay on with Kochi,” said Gaekwad here Thursday.

Pawar said that four members of the consortium met him after last month’s auction and asked for his help in transferring the Kochi team to Ahmedabad. “I said if you want my advice you should stay in Kochi,” Pawar said.

Gaekwad said that Lalit Modi is being influenced by Narendra Modi.

“The inaugural IPL bidding happened when Vasundhara Raje Scindia was Rajasthan’s chief minister. Vasundhara and Narendra Modi may have put pressure on Lalit (Modi) to bring a team to Ahmedabad. There is politics involved,” he added.

The Gujarat government, however, denied the allagations and said that the chief minister had nothing to do with the controversy.

“Some promoters had met the chief minister but that meeting does not decide the bidding process where the highest quote becomes successful. Gujarat will welcome any team for holding matches in the state,” said Amit Shah, Gujarat home minister.

Gaikwad, however, said that Lalit Modi should disclose the ownership details of all the IPL teams.

“I ask the government to reveal the ownership details of other IPL teams under the corporate law. Government should investigate. We are clean and we have nothing to hide”, he said.

The controversy over the ownership of Kochi franchise came out after Lalit Modi Monday revealed the details of the stakeholders in the new Kochi franchise, which is to join next year’s edition. The team that was last month sold for Rs.1,530 crore has Minister of State for External Affairs Shashi Tharoor’s friend Sunanda Pushkar owning 18 percent free equity.

Rendezvous Sports World, one of the partners in the consortium, has 25 percent of the franchise for free; of this, 18 percent is given to Sunanda and the balance is divided among three other Rendezvous members. Modi in his tweets claimed he was asked not to get into who owns the Rendezvous.

Tharoor denied the charges and said he had called up Modi to ask why he was further delaying the approval of the franchise when all the legal requirements had been fulfilled.