Sahara India Pariwar chairman Subrata Roy Friday blamed Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) president N. Srinivasan for the bitter row that led to his company withdrawing its sponsorship of the Indian cricket team.
“We enjoyed a very cordial relation with BCCI earlier but the current president has a different mindset. He never keeps his promises and commitments. He has lot of egos and why should we bear anyone’s ego,” Roy asked while speaking to reporters.
With its sponsorship of the Indian cricket team expiring in December, Roy said he was not keen to renew the deal, which the company had withdrawn in February along with the ownership of Indian Premier League (IPL) franchise Pune Warriors due to differences with the board.
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Sahara India Pariwar chairman Subrata Roy. File Pic/AFP
Roy also attacked Srinivasan over IPL franchise Chennai Super Kings’ (CSK) former team principal and son-in-law Gurunath Meiyappan for his alleged involvement in betting and fixing.
“The case is on his team but nothing has happened. Had the principal of any other team been involved in something, that team would have been scrapped by now. But that is not happening. So we don’t want to work in that environment,” said Roy.
Roy also said the Indian cricketers though would “come after me” as they do not want any other company’s name on their jerseys.
“I have been told that some BCCI officials and Indian cricketers would attack me for not continuing the deal,” he said with a chuckle.
Regarding Pune Warriors' termination, Roy blamed BCCI’s "arbitrary" reduction in the total number of IPL matches from that stipulated originally.
"They had said that 94 matches will be held every season but then arbitrarily reduced the number to 74. We had made the bid for the IPL franchise based on the representations of BCCI which were false," Roy said, adding that the market value of the IPL as well as sponsorship value of the Indian team will drastically come down after his company’s departure.
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