The Board For Control of Cricket in India (BCCI) has terminated the franchise of Deccan Chargers after the owners, Deccan Chronicle Holdings Ltd (DCHL), failed to submit the bank guarantee of Rs 100 crore to the board.
Debt-ridden Deccan Chargers can no longer be a part of the IPL after its beleaguered owners failed to produce a Rs 100-crore bank guarantee before the Bombay High Court, a condition that had been set for the struggling team's survival in the league.
Deccan Chargers' failure to furnish the guarantee money before the 5pm deadline effectively means that the BCCI's termination of the team stands and the Board was now free to float the tender for a new franchise.
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Deccan Chronicle Holdings Limited, the owner of the franchise, had sought an extension to Friday's deadline until October 15 to submit an "irrevocable and unconditional" bank guarantee but the High Court refused to grant further time.
Justice S J Kathawala declined to give them more time, saying the earlier deadline of October 9 had been extended by three days to accommodate them. u00a0
Co-owner of Deccan Chargers Gayatri Reddy. Pic/Rajeev Tyagi
A top BCCI official said that the IPL Governing Council had earlier decided to terminate Deccan Chargers' contract with IPL and that decision stands.
"We had decided to terminate the contract of Deccan Chargers. It was a decision taken by the IPL Governing Council and only that body can change it. So as things stand, their contract is terminated," the official said.
The BCCI in a statement stated that concerns over players' payments and a "sudden change of stance by the franchise" had precipitated the decision.
"BCCI was compelled to hold an emergency meeting of the IPL Governing Council late Friday evening to discuss certain developments due to the Deccan Chargers' defaults," the official statement read.
"This evening, the BCCI received a lawyers' notice invoking arbitration from the franchise stating that it had not committed any breaches and even if such breaches were committed, the BCCI should not act to terminate the franchise till Yes Bank Ltd furnishes sufficient finance to cure the breaches."
"By this, Deccan Chronicle Holdings Ltd has clearly admitted its inability to cure its breaches within the time stipulated in the BCCI notice despite every bit of assistance from the BCCI. Since the month of May, BCCI has received repeated assurances that the overdue player fees would be paid; all of these promises have been unfulfilled.
"Considering the stated position of the Deccan franchise to refuse to rectify the various defaults including payments to players, foreign Boards etc, as also the deleterious effect such conduct would have on the reputation of the IPL and the franchise itself, a decision was taken to forthwith terminate the Deccan Chargers franchise," the statement said.
The development comes on a day when the DCHL informed the Bombay Stock Exchange about its decision to sell the IPL franchise to a Mumbai-based real estate firm Kamla Landmarc Real Estate Holdings Ltd for an undisclosed sum.
Now that the cricket board is free to go ahead with the termination of the franchise, the fate of the proposed sale is uncertain. It is also unclear how the players of the Deccan Chargers would get their payments.u00a0
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