BCCI set for reconciliation; gives importance to 11-yr relationship with Sahara
BCCI set for reconciliation; gives importance to 11-yr relationship with Sahara
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The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) appeared to climb down yesterday and talked of reconciliation rather than confrontation with its estranged chief sponsor Sahara India.
Board president N Srinivasan
The Board's devil-may-care tone was missing when its president N Srinivasan said the BCCI only has "perceptional differences" with Sahara India, the Team India's sponsor for 11 years, and insisted that all the problems would be sorted out through dialogue.
Subroto Roy
Srinivasan said he was open to dialogue for sorting out the issue with Sahara India, which Saturday announced it was ending its sponsorship deal with the BCCI for Team India and also pulled out of the Indian Premier League (IPL) franchise Pune Warriors.
"We only have perceptional differences and any dialogue is welcome. We have a long 11-year relationship with Sahara and I was surprised by their decision," Srinivasan said.
When pointed out that Sahara chairman Subroto Roy took the decision after talking to him, Srinivasan said: "We had a long conversation on Friday evening and he expressed that he was hurt. But we never expected them to take this decision."
Srinivasan was confident that the issue would be sorted out when the two parties sit down. "When we sit down, we can sort out all the problems," he said. Sahara signed a fresh sponsorship contract on BCCI July 1, 2010, and it runs till Dec 31, 2013. According to the Rs 532-crore contract, Sahara will pay Rs 3.34 crore per Test match, one-day international and T20 international under the new terms.
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