What next for the Deccan Chargers?

Debt-ridden Deccan Chargers’ bid to find a buyer ended in an anti-climax today with the IPL team rejecting the only bid they received, leaving the future of the beleaguered franchise uncertain. A top BCCI official indicated that the Chargers’ contract could be terminated at the Working Committee meeting and a new tender could be floated. There was also a possibility that the PVP company could be given the team. “We will discuss the entire issue now and see what can be done. It is now upto the Working Committee to take a final decision on the issue,” the official said. [caption id=“attachment_454607” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Deccan Chronicle Holdings purchased the Hyderabad franchise for Rs 428 crore in 2008. AFP[/caption] Another top BCCI official expressed surprise that the bid of Rs 900 crore was rejected by Chargers. “We are very surprised that a bid of Rs 900 crore plus has been rejected by Chargers. We thought that for a company that is in financial mess, the offer was a good one as it would have helped them clear their players’ payment from the last edition. I guess they are being governed by the banks and that is the reason for rejecting the offer,” the official said. On what will be the next step for the BCCI, he said, “We need to wait till 5pm on September 15 when the timeframe of one month given to Deccan Chargers ends. If they don’t pay the players’ salaries, obviously the team would cease to exist. In any case they did a very wrong thing by mortgaging a BCCI property (IPL team) to the bank.” According to IPL constitution, the BCCI has right to encash the bank guarantee and pay the players’ salaries from it. There is a precedence when Kochi Tuskers Kerala team was disbanded and BCCI encashed the bank guarantee. Deccan Chronicle Holdings purchased the Hyderabad franchise for Rs. 428 crore in 2008. At the auction, the base price was said to be around Rs 750 crore. The winning bidder had to meet BCCI’s eligibility criteria and other requirements. This was the first time an entire IPL franchise has been put on the block by its owners, although Rajasthan Royals sold a small stake in 2009 to the actress Shilpa Shetty and her husband Raj Kundra. PTI