MUMBAI: The wait gets longer. And yet more timelines set by the Board of Control for Cricket in India are set to come and go.
With CVC Capital Partners STILL awaiting final clearance from the BCCI over its purchase of the Ahmedabad franchise in the Indian Premier League, which the BCCI had announced with much fanfare on 25 October, one of the deadlines (December 25 to sign three players from those released by the “original 8” IPL teams), is likely to be extended now, Cricbuzz reports.
There is of course the far bigger matter of the IPL Media Rights tender for the 2023-2027 cycle, which, it is worth recalling, BCCI secretary Jay Shah had stated “will be released immediately after the appointment of two new IPL teams”. That was in late September.
Fast forwardinng to the present, a BCCI official has told the online cricket news platform that “things are expected to be cleared soon”. How soon? Maybe some time this week. With the silence from the BCCI becoming seriously deafening, it is unlikely that anyone would venture to hold their breath on that one.
So what has CVC been up to in the mean time? As per Cricbuzz, the global private equity firm has roped in Peter Griffith, a former director of operations at IMG, in an advisory/consultancy capacity. Griffith was involved in the IPL from its inception in 2008. IMG conceived and executed the IPL from the very beginning till the BCCI parted ways the global sports and entertainment major earlier this year. Griffith was part of the IMG till 2015, having worked for them for over 25 years.
CVC has also taken on board Matthew Wheeler, another UK-based sports expert, who advising the firm on various IPL functions, the cricket website further reports.
Clearly, CVC has no plans of “walking away” anytime soon, as some might have hoped.
