NEW DELHI: The Board of Control for Cricket in India has finally run out of any more legal cards to play in its long running battle contesting the compensation awarded to the promoters of the disbanded Indian Premier League (IPL) franchise Kochi Tuskers Kerala for terminating their contract in 2011.
The Supreme Court has upheld the ruling delivered by the arbitrator in 2015 directing the BCCI to pay a compensation of Rs 5.5 billion to disbanded franchise. The apex court also made it clear that the amount has to be paid with 18 per cent annual interest, which takes the board’s liability in this case to over Rs 17 billion, DNA reports.
The Kochi owners won the arbitration case in 2015 challenging BCCI’s decision to encash bank guarantee citing breach of agreement. The matter was referred to Justice RC Lahoti-headed panel, who had directed the BCCI to pay Rs 5.5 billion compensation with 18 per cent annual penalty on failing to do so.
After hearing the final SC decision on Thursday, one of the Kochi owners told DNA that “the prime aim of his team is not to press for entire amount from BCCI but rather seek a return to IPL fold”.
“We are still open for an amicable settlement with the BCCI,” said the owner, adding: “We’re ready to wave off nearly Rs 1,000 crore if our team is allowed to return to IPL fold from next season (2019). We are cricket lovers and eager to play the game again.”
DNA had last week reported that how a senior BCCI official warned the SC-appointed Committee of Administrators (CoA) for ignoring the board’s financial liabilities while announcing the players’ central contracts.
If an immediate step is not taken to settle this long-pending case with Kochi, then an additional burden of Rs 200 million would be added monthly or Rs 7.5 million per day and that comes to Rs 2.4 billion a year, the daily reports.
“We hope the COA will take a wise decision and save the huge public money in the interest of cricket lovers. We are ready to wave off Rs 1000 crore (Rs10 billion and counting) if our team is allowed to play from 2019,” the Kochi owner told the daily.
Apart from Kochi’s huge amount, BCCI stares at paying Pune Sahara nearly Rs 7 billion, DNA further reports. There are similar Enforcement Director (ED) case of Rs 24.2 billion, income tax (Rs 5.4 billion), service tax (Rs 6 billion) and sales tax (Rs 900 million) which BCCI may have to deal with in the coming months, accoridng to DNA.
