BCCI terminates Deccan Chargers contract

MUMBAI: The Twenty20 cricket Indian Premier League (IPL) governing council has terminated the contract with its Hyderabad franchisee Deccan Chargers, ending the ambitious journey of the promoters of Deccan Chronicle Holdings who were dreaming of extending their core media business to other lines of growth opportunities including the high-profile cricket property.

The Council took this extreme step late Friday night on grounds of a breach of contract. The decision was taken at an emergency IPL governing council meeting in Chennai, it is learnt. The final call was taken by BCCI President N Srinivasan.

IPL will now call for bids for a new franchise on Saturday.

The termination of the Deccan Chargers contract is as surprising as the decision of the team owner DCHL on Thursday to reject the sole bid it received from PVP Ventures Ltd to buy the franchisee for Rs 9 billion.

BCCI?s working committee was expected to decide on the fate of Deccan Chargers at its scheduled meeting on Saturday.

Deccan Chargers had rejected the sole bid on grounds of unacceptable payment terms. PVP Ventures had offered to pay Rs 4.50 billion in cash and the remaining in instalments but without providing bank guarantees. The bank lenders of DCHL were insisting upon bank guarantees.

The BCCI, in a statement on Thursday, had said the bid by PVP Ventures met its eligibility and suitability criteria. "The bid was then reviewed by Deccan Chronicle Holdings Limited which, in its discretion and with no role being played by BCCI, rejected the bid on the basis of the payment terms offered by the bidder."

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