The seasoned politician on Tuesday gave board president Shashank Manohar the sole responsibility for solving the IMG-IPL mess. Srinivasan had sent a letter to IMG a week back cancelling IPL’s contract with the event management company. This had prompted seven of the eight franchisees - Team Chennai, owned by Srinivasan’s company India Cements, being the exception - to write to Pawar against this "arbitrary step". Reportedly, Modi was also unhappy with Srinivasan’s decision. Now, Manohar has been asked to renegotiate the deal with IMG.
According to sources, Modi and Srinivasan have been at loggerheads for some time now and the recent threat by angry franchisees - who have invested crores in IPL - forced Pawar to call Manohar and Modi for a meeting on Monday night. The issue was resolved there. Manohar will meet IMG representatives in the coming weeks and discuss issues that revolve around the money charged on a commission basis by the company for smooth functioning of the IPL. Srinivasan has said that IMG is over-charging for its services. IMG worked for IPL in 2009 for an annual fee of around Rs 33 crore. The board is looking to renegotiate this price and reduce it by around Rs 5-7 crore.
"It is just a matter of correct pricing," said a board official.
However, there could be a further twist to this peaceful route that BCCI is now seeking. The IMG has already renegotiated with BCCI twice on issue of payments. In fact, sources said that the second time they renegotiated, they did it "under duress". Hereafter, there are indications that IMG will only talk to BCCI after the board agrees to their conditions.
"I met you (BCCI secretary) and president in Mumbai in July and informed that IMG is not prepared to submit a proposal since the proposed fixed fee variation has been not ratified and the original commission based system of remuneration continued to apply. IMG has not been paid anything for the 2009 tournament in South Africa other than our out of pocket expenses," says IMG’s letter to BCCI.
Therefore, despite Pawar having played his cards well by keeping Srinivasan and Modi out of the picture, it’s difficult to say who will gain in the renegotiated deal. What is clear though, is that BCCI will not enjoy a very strong platform to argue, given the 10-year contract that is legally binding.
Manohar’s decision will be announced on September 24.
UNPROFESSIONAL TO THE CORE
If the controversy is amicably resolved, it could actually turn out to be the first step by BCCI towards adopting a professional attitude. The board has for long been run like a fiefdom and professionalism has stayed on the backburner. The biggest fear now is about IPL going the same way. "For once, you have a set-up that is professionally administered. The last thing we need to do is tinker with that," said a top board official.
"It is more important we keep in mind not to show BCCI in bad light. We have to honour the contract," Pawar said in Wednesday’s governing council meeting.
