Pune Warriors India franchise terminated by BCCI from IPL for non-payment of fee

Pune Warriors India have been terminated over the fee dispute

Pune Warriors India have been terminated by the BCCI after they defaulted on the payment of the franchise fee.

The IPL franchise had failed to pay the fee, following which the BCCI encashed its bank guarantee. The Sahara group, which owns the franchise, then announced its decision to pull-out from IPL, but didn’t send an official notification in this regard to the BCCI.

This decision to terminate the franchise was taken in BCCI’s working committee meeting today, in which all the governing council members were invited.

BCCI wanted the Sahara group to give a bank guarantee of of 174 crore rupees which the Pune franchise failed to deliver.

Sahara has been demanding a reduction in the franchise fee since it did not get the same number of matches which were earlier promised by the BCCI. But the arbitration procedure has been hanging in balance since both sides have been at loggerheads on the matter of judges to be appointed for it.

The termination of the most expensive IPL franchise – Pune Warriors was bought by Sahara for $370 million (approx Rs. 1702 crores) in 2010 – is set to cause a big financial loss to the BCCI.

With the expulsion of Pune Warriors India, if the status quo remains, the next season of IPL will be an eight-team affair.