Dec. 8: Every decision the Indian cricket control board took after removing Lalit Modi from the Indian Premier League this past summer is being reversed in the courts. On Wednesday, the Bombay High Court granted Kings XI Punjab an interim stay on their expulsion from the IPL, bringing the number of teams participating in the competition back to ten, at least for now.
The court added that Kings XI had a “strong case” against the board, and unless another decision was passed between now and the auction of players for IPL-4 on January 8 and 9, the franchise was free to participate like the other nine. “We had felt that the decision to expel us was unfair and not in the collaborative spirit which the IPL had operated in. We are glad to have been proved right,” a franchise official told this newspaper on Wedenesday.
Kings XI’s case, however, isn’t as straightforward as Rajasthan Royals, who have also been granted an interim relief order. The franchise will have to furnish bank guarantees to make up losses that the BCCI, as well as their own players might suffer in case the final judgement goes against them.
Kings XI have also been told to pay up the money owed to some of their players including Yuvraj Singh and Irfan Pathan as salaries.
According to sources, the franchise — owned by actress Preity Zinta and businessmen Ness Wadia, Mohit Burman and Karan Paul — is reportedly defaulting a whopping `26 crores on player payments alone. The owners had been unable to clear payments saying their bank account was seized by the income tax authorities due to alleged service tax regularities. The franchise official said that it was too early to decide on what their next step will be. “It’s a lengthy order. Only after we go through it will we be able to decide what to do with it. There are too many conditions in the document.”
To confirm their participation in next year’s IPL, King’s XI will have to furnish bank guarantees of $18 million for the players, and of $3.5 million for the BCCI within one month, the court stated.
They will, however, not be able to retain any of the marquee players, since the deadline expired on the day.
Cut in IPL-IV profits, doesn’t worry teams
The possible increase in the number of teams for IPL-4 is a cause of worry for the board. In a hush-hush meeing in Baroda last Saturday, IPL governing council chairman Chirayu Amin, BCCI president Shashank Manohar and other top offcial had feared how an IPL with 10 teams will cut into the profits of the surviving “original” six that had been finally targeting to make big money.