Mumbai: Representatives of the two new franchises Pune and Rajkot looked pleased following the the Indian Premier League players’ draft in Mumbai on Tuesday, while revealing that every move was pre-planned and according to business plans formulated by the owners.
Representing the Pune franchise, Subroto Talukdar elaborated on why they opted for India limited-overs captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni, despite his dip in from in recent years.
“We are a new franchisee and we have to build a brand and who better than M.S. Dhoni to start with. Our choices were as per plan. We were targeting each player in order of priority and it has worked according to our plan.”
Asked whether the investment would be worth it considering it was only for two years, Talukdar said it was their plan, “We have take in consideration all the commercial aspects. We are a business house, we do not do anything out of pure passion. There is always a business plan associated and it has been taken care of.”
Keshav Bansal, who was present on behalf of the Rajkot franchise, owned by the mobile manufacturing company Intex, chose to look at the larger picture and was positive that the investment was worth it.
“I look at the broader perspective. One has to be passionate and has to go aggressive. At Intext, our target audience is the youth. We see a great synergy between the brand and the sport for sure. Our forte is consumer durables, so, it makes great sense for brand like us to get into this. If you want to have a team in this coveted tournament, you have to be aggressive and give that personal touch. In a larger perspective, we are sure it will be worth an investment.”
The two teams will make their debut when the ninth editions of the marquee league will kick off from April 9 next year. While the rest of the franchisees have a set business mode, the new owners will have to create fresh avenues to recover their investments in two years time, but the representatives insisted there was no pressure on them to recovery their investment.
“Other franchisees, having played more seasons than us, will have an advantage. But we plan to learn from their mistakes. And the IPL governing council is there to address any issues we have so there will be no pressure in terms of making money,” said Bansal.
The draft for the two new teams was held after CSK and RR were suspended following the spot fixing scandal, which left IPL’s, credibility with a massive hit, but IPL chairman Rajeev Shukla dispelled any doubts over the integrity of the T20 league.
“You have seen the response during the bidding for the two new teams. So, after that also I don’t think there should be a question regarding the credibility of the T20 league.” Even the representatives sounded unperturbed by the controversy and backed the BCCI to take corrective measures inorder to avoid such issues in the future.
“We have no issues with the controversy. We have a proactive BCCI president, who is taking the right measures. “The idea should be to identify the problem and work towards it. We have full confidence in the GC and the controversy did not influence our decision-making and we have got full confidence in the BCCI,” said Bansal.
Download the all new Deccan Chronicle app for Android and iOS to stay up-to-date with latest headlines and news stories in politics, entertainment, sports, technology, business and much more from India and around the world.
