Sahara India boss Subrata Roy has hinted at chances of a reconciliation with the BCCI if it ensures Pune Warriors participate in the fifth edition of the Indian Premier League.
The Sahara Group released a statement early Saturday morning announcing their decision to stop sponsorship of the Indian cricket team as well as give up the Pune Warriors franchise – on the same day that the IPL auction was to be held in Bangalore.
The BCCI issued a statement in the afternoon stating that it would take action only after they received official confirmation from the conglomerate.
"As long as the issue of my players getting an opportunity in the IPL, I am not rigid. I have requested the BCCI to find an interested corporate who is willing to take over the team so that the players don't suffer. Money is not the problem, we will play them nonetheless, but it is also important that players get to play," Roy said in a hastily-convened press conference in Mumbai.
"So as long as this issue is concerned, I am ready to be flexible. If there is a way out, I am ready to talk to the BCCI and work things out," Roy added.
It was widely believed that Sahara decided to disassociate itself with BCCI and IPL after their request to increase the auction purse for Saturday's auction in the absence of Yuvraj Singh, their marquee player, so that they have enough money to hunt for top India players. Yuvraj has been sidelined with a non-malignant tumour.
But Roy said the decision to sever ties was not based on one incident.
"We have not severed ties because of a single issue. Nobody breaks a long relationship like this over one issue, it doesn't happen that way. But if you keep bearing the brunt of things over time, then at some point you have to end it. This decision is not based on a single incident, it is based on things that have happened over the years," Roy clarified.
"The Yuvraj Singh incident is one of those things. In any case we started with a handicap when all the eight franchises retained players so there were close to 16 players we could not touch. So we were always behind other teams. Then Yuvraj gets injured so we asked for an increase so we could find a suitable replacement.
"When one franchise (Mumbai Indians) was struggling to field seven Indian players (In the Champions League last year) they were allowed to field five foreign players. That was a good decision because this is sports and it has to be played fair and in the interest of the game and not dictated by rules and regulation.
"We made similar requests to the BCCI to allow some allowances so that we can also compete and take the fight to the other teams. This will also make the IPL more attractive. But every time our requests were refused.
"Even when we decided on the price of the franchise, it was based on playing a certain number of matches and then the number of matches were reduced. We asked the BCCI to return the difference, which made up around 25 per cent of the total money we had paid but even that didn't happen.
"So, it is not a one-off thing. Finally we decided to steps when it was