MUMBAI: After terminating the Deccan Chargers, the BCCI has invited tenders for a new IPL team.

The tender notice for a fresh franchise invites bids for 12 cities: Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Cuttack, Dharamsala, Indore, Kanpur, Kochi, Nagpur, Noida, Rajkot, Ranchi and Visakhapatnam.

Earlier, after a month long legal battle, Deccan Chargers lost their status as an IPL team after the Bombay High Court stayed the order of Arbitrator for maintaining status quo on the matter till further hearing.

The last date for submission of the bids is 25 October. Bids can be collected from today. Under this invitation to tender, the winning bidder will be granted the right to own and operate a new team which will compete in the IPL from 2013 onwards.

The BCCI has said that it has reserved the right to cancel or amend the entire bidding process at any stage and to reject any and all bids without proving any reason. Merely buying the tender document for Rs 500,000 does not entitle the purchase to bid. The bidding parties need to fulfill the eligibility criteria and other requirements mentioned in the tender document.

MUMBAI: The financially-distressed Deccan Chronicle Holdings Limited (DCHL), the owner of Twenty20 cricket IPL franchise Deccan Chargers, got a relief on Monday as the Bombay High Court barred the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) from inviting tenders for a new team till it hears DCHL‘s petition on Monday, 24 September.

DCHL has challenged the decision of BCCI to terminate the IPL governing council‘s franchise agreement for Deccan Chargers team.

The hearing was postponed to Monday as the Deccan Chargers‘ counsel asked for more time to go through the affidavit filed by BCCI and prepare for the hearing. While granting Deccan Chargers‘ plea, the high court also asked BCCI to refrain from issuing a tender for a new franchise till 24 September.

Earlier, there was speculation in sections of the media that the BCCI has zeroed in on 10 potential cities for the new franchise and has fixed the base price at Rs 3 billion. The BCCI had on Friday terminated Deccan Chargers‘ contract. It was to decide on inviting tenders for a new team on Saturday.

DCHL, under the aegis of BCCI, had called for bids to sell its IPL team but received only one bid from PVP Ventures, a Chennai-based listed real estate and film financing company. The bid was rejected by DCHL saying the price quoted by the bidder was not good enough and the payment terms unacceptable. PVP Ventures had offered to pay Rs 450 crore upfront and another Rs 450 crore through convertible debentures.

BCCI had found PVP Ventures to be an eligible entity to own an IPL franchise and was unhappy at DCHL‘s decision to reject the bid. The bid was conducted in the presence of a court officer appointed by the high court as an observer.

BCCI secretary Sanjay Jagdale, in a statement, had said the bid was rejected despite the bidder meeting the eligibility criteria of the BCCI.

The BCCI said it had to take the extreme step of terminating the Deccan Chargers agreement as the franchise owner was in breach of the agreement and had failed to pay players‘ fees despite repeated assurances since May.

DCHL is burdened by crippling indebtedness (various estimates have put its borrowings at around Rs 4,000 crore) and is in dire need of funds to ward off any action by its lenders. The promoters have already pledged their shares in DCHL and also the trademarks of its newspaper brands - Deccan Chronicle, Financial Chronicle, Asian Age and Andhra Bhoomi -- to lenders.

MUMBAI: Deccan Chronicle on Saturday filed a petition in the Bombay High Court seeking a stay on the BCCI‘s decision to terminate the contract it had with the Indian Premier League (IPL) for IPL Twenty20 cricket franchise Deccan Chargers.

BCCI Secretary Sanjay Jagdale, in a statement, said the court heard both the parties and posted the petition for hearing on Monday, 17 September.

Earlier, explaining the decision to terminate the contract, Jagdale said despite the High Court appointing a court officer to act as an Observer at the opening of the tender, which was conducted under the aegis of the BCCI, to save the beleaguered franchise, Deccan Chronicle Holdings Ltd rejected the bid that was received in the amount of Rs 4.50 billion cash and an equal sum in convertible debentures. This was despite the bidder meeting the eligibility criteria of the BCCI.

"BCCI has 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 furnishes sufficient finance to cure the breaches. By this, Deccan Chronicle Holdings 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," a BCCI statement said.

He said since the month of May, BCCI has received repeated assurances that the overdue player fees would be paid but all of those promises have remained unfulfilled.

The Governing Council (of the IPL) took note of the sudden change of stance by the franchise and also the fact that any further extension of time would seriously prejudice the interests of the players. The governing council at an emergency meeting in Chennai on Friday night took the final decision to terminate the contract with Deccan Chargers owner Deccan Chronicle.

"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," BCCI stated.

Jagdale stated that the BCCI was completely justified in its action which was taken with careful deliberation and only due to the absolute inability of the franchise to effectively run the team.

Reports had earlier indicated that Yes Bank, one of the banks that had loaned Deccan Chronicle money, had agreed to pay the players‘ salaries. The deadline for clearing players‘ dues was 1700 hrs Saturday.

Also Read: BCCI terminates Deccan Chargers contract

MUMBAI: In a blow to Nimbus, the Bombay High Court today ordered that the termination of a contract for broadcast rights between the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) and Nimbus stands. It dismissed Nimbus‘ appeal.

Two days after the BCCI scrapped the broadcast deal with Nimbus Communications, the sports marketing agency went to the court for relief.

Nimbus had said that the BCCI‘s move was a breach of contract. The company maintains that it did not intend to default on payments.

The court has also highlighted the fact that the banks associated with Nimbus and BCCI refused to play guarantees and they will now have to provide a notice period of three days should they change their minds.