With Subrato Roy, we live in emotional times

At around three on Saturday morning in Bangalore, Sourav Ganguly, Allan Donald, Deep Dasgupta and Sushanto and Seemanto Roy among others were huddled in a hotel room in Bangalore making plans for the auction. The white board was up; the names of the players the Pune Warriors wanted were on it, and the team was feeling pretty bullish about it’s chances. But that was only until they went to sleep. The next thing they knew was that Sahara had decided to pull the plug on the Pune Warriors and they were on a flight to Mumbai. It happened so fast that no one knew anything about it.[caption id=“attachment_203655” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption=“Sahara India Pariwar managing worker and chairman Subrata Roy addresses a press conference in Mumbai on Saturday. PTI “]  [/caption] “One moment we were making plans and setting up camps in Lucknow, and the next, we are heading back home. We live in interesting times indeed,” said former India mental conditioning coach Paddy Upton. Interesting times… yes. But if Sahara owner Subrato Roy is to be believed these are very emotional times too. According to Roy, who spoke to the media later in the evening, the crux of the problem was not just the refusal to grant them some more funds on the auction to make up for Yuvraj Singh’s absence. “This is about emotions. They (The BCCI) were just declining everything we were suggesting. There has to be some give and take,” said Roy. “When they decided to allow Mumbai to play a fifth foreign player in the competition, we said okay because Mumbai had a lot of injuries and we wanted a good game to be played, so why couldn’t they give them same thing to us?” “Bahut mann mand ho gaya, bahut one-sided laga raha tha. (I was feeling very bad. It became very one-sided). But this is not a bad decision. I only worry about the players. The money is not a problem. The players are,” Roy further added. Roy rarely ever talked numbers. But he did mention that this wasn’t a sudden decision. “The discussions have been on for more than a month and the only reason we pulled the plug today morning that we were still expecting to BCCI to maybe relent in the morning,” said Roy. “I had never spoken to N Srinivasan before and I even spoke to him yesterday to tell him about our problems.” But it seemed like Roy ran into a brick wall. “He told me he had nothing to do with the matter. He said he wasn’t the president when the deal was signed and there was nothing he could do. And that is why we reacted emotionally.” So it once again, comes down to emotions. Big money is involved but all Roy seems to worry about is emotions. Sahara’s existing sponsorship deal, at $719,000 per match, was to end on 31 December 2013 and they bought the Pune Warriors franchise for $370 million (approximately Rs 1,700 crore). The bid was the highest bid by any company in the short history of IPL. “Khatas gehri ho gayi hai (The bitterness deepened). And I don’t want to blame anyone. Just blame our DNA. The people in high positions are just scared. But I do feel for the players. They have been reduced to race horses. They are playing too much cricket.” So amid all this drama, is there a possibility of reconciliation? “We are not rigid people but I think it will be difficult to do that. We have already announced our future plans and even though we are pulling out of sponsoring the team, we will still be supporting the game and that is what is important.” As a parting shot, without naming anyone in particular, Roy said: “For almost 20 to 30 years I have seen the sports scene in the country and have realised that the federations and institutions that control sport in the country have no sporting spirit.” “We don’t ask for much but there has to be a give and take; there has to be mutual respect. This was an emotional connection from the start and now it’s gone.” The important thing to note though was that in the course of a one-hour press conference, Roy reiterated over and over again that nothing official has been sent to the BCCI. “We don’t like legal battles. Let’s hope this can be sorted out through discussion.”