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Showing posts with label Sahara. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Sahara. Show all posts

Wednesday, March 24, 2010

IPL hikes salary cap by $2m to $7m per team

Source: timesofindia.indiatimes.com

NEW DELHI: The debate over removing the salary cap for players in the Indian Premier League seems to have been settled, at least for now.

IPL team owners will be able to spend up to $7 million on bidding for players at the auction to be held later this year for the next season, an increase of $2 million from the first auction.

IPL chairman Lalit Modi on Tuesday said, "Ten teams will have a purse of $70 million, which is $210 million (about Rs 1,000 crore) in three years. This will be the single largest auction in the sporting world." The three-year player contracts signed by the franchises in 2008 end with this season, so a huge number of players will be up for grabs again.

The only exceptions will be four Indian players and three foreign recruits that each team can retain.

When the first auction was held in 2008, the IPL had imposed a salary cap of $5 million per team. Another $2 million was permitted at the second auction last year and a further $750,000 was the purse available to each team at the auction this year.

After bidding Rs 1,702 crore for the Pune franchise, Sahara group chief Subrata Roy had said IPL should increase the salary cap.

"I was thinking the highest bid would be around $330 million. But I was wrong. The bid reached $370 million, which proves the event's popularity. But as far as the auction is concerned, you have to keep a reality check. That is why I have recommended a $7 million cap. Without a salary limit, it will go berserk," Modi said. The proposal still has to be approved by the IPL governing council.

Will Sahara now drop Team India?

Source: Times of India

NEW DELHI: Is IPL's ever-growing stature adversely affect Team Indian's fortunes? It's likely. After buying the IPL Pune franchisee for a whopping Rs 1702 crore, a strong buzz is that Sahara India is having a rethink on its deal as the main sponsor of the Indian team.

"We haven't taken a call. We will decide on it once the Twenty20 World Cup is over. As of now, we are still with the Indian team and hopefully, will continue our association," Abhijit Sarkar, Sahara's head of corporate communications, told TOI on Tuesday.

Till date, Sahara has paid Rs 400 crore for the Indian team sponsorship in the last four years and so. It's four-year contract with the Indian cricket board ended in December 2009. But it was asked to continue for another six months after BCCI could not find any takers for the sponsorship, at the price it was asking for. As per the deal, Sahara is paying more than Rs 2 crore for an ODI, almost Rs 2 crore for a Test and more than Rs 1.5 crore for a Twenty20 match that India play.

Now that Sahara has joined the big league of IPL team owners after forking out a huge sum, will it have the money and the inclination to continue to be the main sponsors of the national team? If no, then what happens to brand Team India? Well, only time will tell. Sarkar, on his part, clarified, "We wish to continue the association and we'll discuss it out."

On Tuesday, Sahara chief Subroto Roy was quoted by agencies that the group was reviewing the sponsorship with the Indian team.

Monday, March 22, 2010

Size of bids for new IPL teams surprises all, even Modi

22 Mar 2010

Source:economictimes.indiatimes.com

CHENNAI/MUMBAI: The Sahara group won the bid for IPL franchise Pune on Sunday. Giving reasons for their choice of city, Abhijit Sarkar, corporate communications head at Sahara, told TOI: "It’s close to Aamby Valley. We have our business reasons for choosing Pune."

The second bid was for $333.33 million (Rs 1,533 crore) from a consortium of investors under Rendezvous Sports who opted for Kochi as their base camp. “It would suffice at this point of time to let you know that we are a group of investors passionate about cricket.

“Some are from Kerala, some from other parts of India and some from abroad. I would not like to reveal too many details at this point of time,” said Vivek Venugopal, a builder from Kerala and one of the investors in the state. However, it is learnt that the group also includes Anchor Switches, Rosy Blue Diamond , Mukesh Patel, and Ravi and Sanjay Gaikwad.

Anchor Switches is a company from Gujarat owned by Mehul Shah. Rosy Blue Diamond is one of the world’s largest diamond manufacturing companies. Dilip Mehta is the CEO of this company, which owns jewellry brand ‘Orra’ . Ravi and Sanjay Gaikwad are Mumbai-based businessmen. Sanjay Gaikwad is the CEO of UFO Moviez while Mukesh Patel is an education baron who runs technology, management and engineering institutions.

The size of the bids surprised one and all, including Modi himself. “I was expecting something in the range of $320m, but this does come as a surprise to me. You talk about recession, but all I can say is that there’s no recession in IPL,’’ exulted a beaming Modi. Among the losers , Aman Vohra placed a bid of $261.3 million, Adani Group bid $315 million for Ahmedabad and VC Digital bid $319.9 million for Pune.

"Kochi does not have a cricket stadium as yet. The Kerala Cricket Association is in the process of building a world class cricket stadium . Till the ground becomes ready, IPL will provide alternative venues to Rendezvous," Modi added. Pune, on the other hand, has a stadium under construction 30km from the city.

Sources close to Tharoor were, however, categorical that they would insist on some of the matches being held in Kochi. “We’ve a stadium there. If we have an IPL team, it’s for hosting matches in Kerala,” they said.

Pune and Kochi are new IPL franchises

March 21, 2010

Source: Rediff.com

Pune and Kochi are the two new teams for the forthcoming editions of the Indian Premier League,commissioner Lalit Modi announced in Chennai, on Sunday.

Sahara Adventure Sports Group successfully won the Pune franchise after they bid the highest amount of US $370 million (Rs 1702 crore), while the Kochi team was won by a consortium, Rendezvous Sports World Limited, for a whopping amount of $333 million (Rs 1533.33 crore), for a period of ten years.

"There were five qualified bids and the bidding was extremely tough," Modi said.

Sahara had highest bids for three cities -- Ahmedabad, Pune and Nagpur -- but eventually they chose Pune as their franchise.

"Rendezvous Group has Vivek Venugopal, Anchor Switches, Rosy Blue Diamond, Mukesh Patel, Ravi and Sanjay Gaikwad as part of the consortium," Modi wrote on his Twitter page.

He further added that: "The new ground in Kochi will go into construction soon. Till it is ready, the matches will be played at another venue."

The other cities which were in the fray were Ahmedabad, Nagpur, Kanpur, Dharamsala, Vizag, Rajkot, Cuttack, Baroda, Indore and Gwalior.

Adani Entreprises and Videocon, the only two bidders at the last auction, which was cancelled by the IPL and fresh tenders were issued on March 7, lost out this time.

The addition of two new teams takes the total number to ten, which means that the number of matches played will go up from 60 to 94 from the fourth season in 2011.

Modi pointed out that the sale of the two new franchises for such a high amount proved that IPL was recession-proof. The existing eights team had fetched a total value of at Rs 2,840 crores but the two new teams were sold for a combined worth of Rs 3,235.53 crores.

"As far as IPL is concerned there is no recession at all. We will continue to be on upward trend," the IPL chief said.

Modi said he does not foresee IPL growing to more than 10 teams in the near future.

"We have no plans to expand further immediately. The IPL will be limited to ten teams only in near future. Also there are no plans to hold IPL abroad in the future. I don't foresee any expansion in many years to come but then you never know," he said.

The IPL will also provide Rendezvous Sports with an alternative venue if the Kerala Cricket Association's cricket stadium is not ready in time for next year's tournament.

"The Kerala Cricket Association are in the process of building the infrastructure so the teams will play only there once the stadium is ready. But till it is ready, the IPL will provide them with alternate venue and that coule be anywhere in India," said Modi.

When asked whether Pakistan's players would feature in the auction to be held later this year, Modi replied: "We hope the Pakistan players are allowed but that will only be decided when the auction takes places in September-October."

Meanwhile, minister of State for External Affairs Shashi Tharoor denied he was actively involved in the successful bid for the Kochi franchise.

"I am not part of the bid but was pleased to give Rendezvous Sports World my encouragement and blessings.My interest is in transforming Kerala. My own role has been limited to blessing and encouraging this venture because I feel very strongly that Keralites in India and abroad need something like this. I think it will help in the transformation of Kerala and that is my spirit. With that spirit I have given it my blessing. Beyond that I have no involvement," Tharoor said.