Indian cricket was on Saturday hit by a major sponsorship crisis after Sahara India ended its 11-year-old financial ties with the BCCI and also pulled out of the IPL by withdrawing from Pune Warriors' ownership just hours before the players auction for the fifth edition.
Unfazed by the surprise development, BCCI made it clear that rules would not be bent for any IPL franchise but it would still reach out to aggrieved Sahara 'as soon as practicable to clarify its intentions'.
The IPL authorities also went ahead with the auction, saying that no written communication had come from Sahara about their pullout.
Sahara's decision to severe all ties with the BCCI may put the Board in a spot of bother as it had struggled to find long-term team sponsors in the past.
The team's miserable show during the tour of Australia and England will only compound their problems.
Sahara, a corporate giant which has divested into various sectors, gave detailed reasons for its 'emotional decision' to pull out from BCCI as well as the IPL and accused the Board of not giving due consideration to its genuine grievances.
Sahara had signed a renewed agreement with the BCCI on July 1, 2010 till December 31, 2013 and was paying Rs 3.34 crore per Test match, one-day international and Twenty20 International under the new terms.
"The decision we took to end ties was not a bad one at all. We had enough of it. Any relationship does not break on one single issue only. We had a long relationship. It has to do with many issues and has happened continuously," Sahara Group chief Subroto Roy said.
Roy said Sahara had approached the BCCI to settle the issues through arbitration and it had even proposed an arbitrator but the Cricket Board was not interested.
"We even approached the BCCI for arbitration and even proposed the name of the arbitrator," said Roy.
Roy said considering the number of matches reduced from the originally-proposed 94, Pune Warriors paid 25 per cent more money to the Cricket Board for owning the franchisee.
According to top sources, the main bone of contention is on Sahara's marquee player in the IPL Yuvraj Singh, who is currently recovering from tumour in the lungs.
His unavailability in the IPL this season prompted Sahara to ask the BCCI that the price of USD 1.8 million on the batsman be added to their overall purse for the players auction but the request was turned down.
The BCCI, on its part, stuck to the rule book though it was prepared to have talks with Sahara to resolve the issue.
"We understand that Sahara Adventure Sports Limited has issued a statement in which it indicates an intention to withdraw from its involvement in Indian cricket, including as regards the Indian Premier League. We intend to contact Sahara Adventure Sports Limited as soon as practicable to clarify its intentions," BCCI secretary Sanjay Jagdale said in a statement.
"During the last few days Sahara Adventure Sports Limited has requested that IPL vary its Player Regulations by allowing it to increase its Auction Purse from USD 1.6m to USD 3.4m in light of Yuvraj Singh's unfortunate illness", Jagdale said.
The Board said Sahara could have picked a player during the transfer window after the auction instead of asking for bending of rules.
"The rules are very clear and are consistent with previous seasons -- Sahara Adventure Sports Limited may take a replacement following the 2012 Auction," Jagdale said.
Sahara said it was severing ties with BCCI with a 'heavy heart' after sponsoring Indian cricket for 11 years.
"It was an emotional decision for us to start this sponsorship but our emotions were never appreciated and many genuine situations were not given due consideration at all," Sahara said in a statement.
Sahara, which entered the cash-rich IPL bandwagon last year along with the now-disbanded Kochi Tuskers Kerala, bought Pune Warriors for 1702 crore last year. The company complained that several requests put forth by it with regards to players and the number of matches were not accepted by the BCCI.
"Unfortunately we have not received anything in writing from Sahara. So, we cannot communicate. IPL will continue. The show has always gone on and it will continue to do so," IPL chairman Rajiv Shukla told reporters.
"The IPL rules are very clear. For an injured or sick player, they can take a player as replacement," he added. IPL CEO Sundar Raman said that whether Pune Warriors will play or not has not been communicated.
"It is not mandatory for them to sit in the auction. They can go in with the same team in the next edition. They had requested for some flexibility of amendments but the IPL authorities were not prepared to make an exception for any franchise," he said.
Sahara said the BCCI has been citing rules again and again to deny their requests.
"Our first entry into IPL was thwarted in 2008 when we were disqualified, owing to a small technicality on the whims and fancies of BCCI. Yet our Bid was not opened," the statement said.
"Last year, Sahara entered the IPL on the basis of information in the media and everywhere else that 94 matches will be played among 10 teams. The bid price was accordingly calculated, but only 74 matches were played. We are still pursuing continuously with the BCCI to refund the extra bid money proportionately. It has been denied on the basis of strict rules", it said.
"In the interest of the tournament, we repeatedly tried our best to pursue the BCCI for open auction of all players so that we achieve level playing field and all teams are equally balanced from the quality players' point of view. Again, as per BCCI's strict rules it was denied and again, we were deprived of natural justice. 12 of the best players were retained by the existing teams then," Sahara said in the statement.
"The two new teams then requested for allowing us at least one extra foreign player but that too was denied, quoting rules."
"Yuvraj Singh, who is truly like one of our family members, is, quite unfortunately, passing through a bad phase health wise, undergoing treatment for critical illness, overseas.
"Our duty is to take care of him, so Sahara has decided to pay him his full fee this year with condition as a Guardian that his priority should be health care and he should not play till he has fully recovered," the company stated.
"We requested the BCCI on the basis of the fact that we have only one Indian marquee player, that we be allowed to add price of Yuvraj Singh in our auction purse, during the February 4 auction because we had later taken Sourav Ganguly at 0.4 million.
"Again, we have been denied on the basis of the rule book. Yet again, a case of being denied natural justice. We think this peculiar situation of Shri Yuvraj Singh is silent in the rule book because it probably talks only about players who are temporarily injured."
Sahara is apparently also unhappy with the fact that Royal Challengers Bangalore were allowed to buy replacement player Chris Gayle this season.
"The manner in which Gayle was bought was not liked by many franchises including Sahara," a Sahara official said on condition of anonymity.
Sahara said even during the Champions League Twenty20, an injury-plagued Mumbai Indians were allowed to field an extra foreign player due to the crisis in the team but such gestures were never extended to Pune Warriors.
Having withdrawn from cricket under BCCI, Sahara said it would put in Rs. 1000 crore in a welfare foundation.
"We are very happy to take a decision that the cricket money will be diverted to social work. We are declaring to put immediately Rs. 500 crore in Sahara Welfare Foundation, which will be run with the association of eminent persons of our country. For the programme as mentioned below, Sahara declares to put around Rs. 500 crore more in the next 1-2 years as per the need of all the programmes," the company said.
"We are working on various programmes including financial implications etc since we have taken this decision after continuous persuasion with the BCCI failed, meaning on the February 2, 2012. But we waited upto the auction day that our request to BCCI would be accepted. But again, there was no natural justice."
Sahara said it would develop '20 Rural/Semi Urban Sports Promotional Centres including Rural/Semi Urban Cricket promotional Centres.'
"Centres will have diversified sports disciplines viz. cricket, hockey, soccer, formula1, tennis, golf, wrestling, boxing etc. One international standard sports academy shall immediately be developed at one point in India. All best selected students shall ultimately come to this International Class Sports Academy."
Sahara also announced that a support fund for old (retired) and present players who, at times, face "miserable days regarding medical bills, girls marriage, shelter etc."
"Every year minimum 10 crore will be distributed -- Rs 3 crore for cricketers. Rs 7 Crore for all other disciplines."
"We shall discuss with other federations where we are sponsoring different disciplines of sports and as per the genuine need for better promotion, we shall enhance the sponsorship amount."
