The fourth season of the Indian Premier League (IPL) will see eight teams as the Board of Control for Control in India (BCCI) approved the new ownership patterns of the Kochi franchise here Sunday.
The Governing Council of the IPL that met here approved the new shareholding structure proposed by the six investors of the franchise.
?The IPL Governing Council confirmed that the Kochi Franchisee had satisfactorily responded to the notice issued to them by the BCCI, and decided that the Franchisee Kochi Cricket Pvt. Ltd., would play in the IPL from 2011 onwards,? said N.Srinivasan, BCCI secretary, in a statement.
Shailendra Gaekwad, one of the stakeholders, said: “We had been given time and we did it within time.”
“We will get things in order,” he said.
Reacting to the news, T C Mathew, Secretary, Kerala Cricket Association, said:”We have educated sports fanatics here. We have big fan base across the world- Middle East to Europe- and they all support the Kochi IPL move. They will support us and it will be capacity crowd in stadium for IPL matches with Kochi.”
The Governing Council had deferred its decision on the franchisee for the third time last week in Nagpur, after the investors reached a last-minute shareholding agreement.
The investors — Anchor Earth, Parinee Developers, Rosy Blue and Film Wave — hold 74 per cent of the equity.
The remaining 26 per cent lies with the Gaikwad family — Shailendra, his brother Satyajit, who all are part of Rendezvous Sports World — as free equity.
This 26 per cent, which became a bone of contention among the stakeholders.
It was earlier confirmed that Sunanda Pushkar, now wife of Congress MP and writer Shashi Tharoor, has given up her controversial share in Rendezvous Sports.
On Oct 10, two of the IPL teams- Rajasthan Royals and Kings XI Punjab- had their franchise agreements terminated by the Indian cricket board because of questions over their shareholding and ownership patterns.
The termination order for Rajasthan Royals franchise from the IPL, however, was stayed by six weeks by arbitrator Justice B N Srikrishna.
Royals, which had won the inaugural IPL, had moved the Bombay High Court last month after they were axed by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) over the team’s ownership pattern.