BCCI terminates Deccan Chargers contract

Hyderabad - The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) Friday terminated the contract of the Indian Premier League (IPL) franchise Deccan Chargers after their failure to pay the stipulated bank guarantee of Rs.100 crore.

The BCCI in a statement stated that concerns over players’ payments and a “sudden change of stance by the franchise” had precipitated the decision.

“BCCI was compelled to hold an emergency meeting of the IPL Governing Council late Friday evening to discuss certain developments due to the Deccan Chargers’ defaults,” the official statement read.

“This evening, the BCCI received a lawyers’ notice invoking arbitration from the franchise stating that it had not committed any breaches and even if such breaches were committed, the BCCI should not act to terminate the franchise till Yes Bank Ltd furnishes sufficient finance to cure the breaches.”

“By this, Deccan Chronicle Holdings Ltd has clearly admitted its inability to cure its breaches within the time stipulated in the BCCI notice despite every bit of assistance from the BCCI. Since the month of May, BCCI has received repeated assurances that the overdue player fees would be paid; all of these promises have been unfulfilled.

“Considering the stated position of the Deccan franchise to refuse to rectify the various defaults including payments to players, foreign Boards etc, as also the deleterious effect such conduct would have on the reputation of the IPL and the franchise itself, a decision was taken to forthwith terminate the Deccan Chargers franchise,” the statement said.

Earlier Friday, Kamla Landmarc Real Estate, a Mumbai-based real estate firm, had bought the Chargers franchise for an undisclosed amount.

Deccan Chronicle Holdings Limited (DCHL) Friday informed Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) that the board of directors of the company at its meeting held Thursday decided “to sell, transfer/dispose off the Deccan Chargers franchise business to Kamla Landmarc Real Estate Holdings Pvt Ltd”.

Chargers finished at the bottom of the inaugural IPL, only to win the competition in 2009.