Court imposes fine of Rs 538 crore, severe blow to BCCI, will Kerala's own Tuskers return?

MUMBAI: The BCCI expelled Kochi Tuskers, a franchise from Kerala, from the IPL in 2011 for breach of contract. Today, a crucial high court verdict has been delivered in the more than decade-long legal battle waged by the franchise. The Bombay High Court has ordered the BCCI to pay Rs 538 crore.

The franchise, which was established in 2010, played the IPL that year. The BCCI then cancelled their contract the next year. The BCCI unilaterally collected a bank guarantee amount of Rs 153 crore from the franchise and asked it to provide a new guarantee within six months. This was not accepted by the franchise owners, Rendezvous Sports World. The BCCI then banned the franchise in 2011 for breach of contract. Rendezvous Sports World filed a complaint against this in the arbitral tribunal in 2012. In July 2015, a panel headed by former Supreme Court judge R P Lahoti ordered the BCCI to pay a fine of Rs 384 crore and return the bank guarantee of Rs 153 crore given by Kochi Tuskers. A powerful section of the BCCI was not ready for this either.

The strong legal battle started when the BCCI rejected the franchise’ demand to allow them to play in the IPL and not to pay compensation. The arbitral tribunal's verdict asking BCCI to pay Rs 538 crore to Kochi Tuskers, is a major setback for the Indian cricket authorities.

The BCCI had asked the consortium led by Rendezvous Sports World, the owners of the team, to provide a bank guarantee by March 2011. The franchise could not do this. The Tuskers did not provide the bank guarantee at that time, citing the availability of the stadium, the issue of shareholdings, and the problems of suddenly reducing the number of IPL matches.

When the issue reached court, the BCCI opposed this. The BCCI argued that the Tuskers' action of not providing the bank guarantee was a clear breach of contract. However, one side argued that the issue should be resolved by allowing the Tuskers to enter the IPL. However, the other side was not ready for this. Along with the Tuskers, the BCCI had also banned the Pune Warriors, owned by the Sahara Group. This team was dissolved in 2014.

At the time of its formation in 2010, the then IPL commissioner Lalit Modi was not ready to approve the team and sign the contract. The team was signed with the intervention of BCCI chairman Shashank Manohar. The team could only reach eighth place in the first season. The team featured some of the best players in the world at the time, including Graeme Smith, Mitchell Marsh, Jerome Taylor, Yuvraj Singh, Angelo Mathews, Ashish Nehra, Muttiah Muralitharan and Brendon McCullum. With today's verdict, it is something that every IPL fan is eagerly waiting to see if the franchise will return with more vigor.