New Delhi : Chennai Super Kings is all set to be forced out from the Indian Premier League. The Supreme Court, in an observation on Thursday, has said that the team should be disqualified from the IPL following the indictment of one of its officials, Gurunath Meiyappan by the Mudgal committee on charges of betting.
Meiyappan, the son-in-law of suspended BCCI President N Srinivasan was cleared by the committee on match fixing charges. N Srinivasan is also facing Supreme Court scrutiny on conflict of interest, with the top court demanding share holding pattern of India Cements, the cement company that owns CSK. Srinivasan is the managing director of India Cements.
The Supreme Court has also raised questions over the post of Indian captain MS Dhoni in India Cements. Further, the apex court asked BCCI why fresh elections have not been held yet. It added that people named in the Mudgal report should not contest in these elections.
BCCI in turn argued that an external commission be set up to hand out punishment to persons found guilty in the Mudgal committee report. Last Friday, India Cements had told the Supreme Court that any action against it would have disastrous consequences for the cash-rich Twenty20 tournament.
If any orders are passed against India Cements it could have “disastrous consequences not only for this respondent (India Cements) but also for the entire league, the cricketers involved, third parties such as sponsors, apart from millions of fans, Chennai Super Kings being arguably the most valuable and popular team in IPL,” India Cements said in its response to the Mudgal Committee report.
Mudgal Committee inquired into the allegations of match fixing and betting on the direction of the apex court and had submitted its final report Nov 1. The committee, in its report, said that Srinivasan’s son-in-law Gurunath Meiyappan was involved in betting while exonerating him of spot fixing charges. The committee also described Meiyappan as a “team official” of CSK.
The axing of CSK would mean significant change in the business landscape of the IPL. The owners of CSK, India Cements, paid the BCCI close to Rs 54.6 crore in franchise fees and another Rs 59.80 crore in player fees. Apart from this, the franchise also collects close to Rs 45-50 crore in sponsorship money and another Rs 15 to 20 crore in gate revenues.
Thus, the total money riding on CSK is close to Rs 175 to 180 crore. Apart from the franchise’s sponsors, the sponsors of the BCCI also would be anxious and may ask for a reworking of the deals. Currently, the BCCI gets around Rs 200 crore in on-ground sponsorships. With the expulsion of the CSK, brands like Pepsi, the title sponsor who pays around Rs 80 crore a year, may want the deal reworked since the MS Dhoni-led franchise is one of the most popular teams in the IPL.
The Supreme Court’s observation also throws open the question of the fate of the IPL in general and particularly the 2015 season. According to people in the know, the contracts between the owners and BCCI explicitly state that the tournament would take place with at least eight teams. This means that either the governing body of cricket in India will have to call for a bidding of the eighth franchise (which may or may not be from the city of Chennai) or, the IPL could take a one year break.
In the latter case, the sports and entertainment eco-system is looking at a deficit of almost Rs 3,000 crore. This includes the franchise fees paid by the individual team owners to BCCI (Rs 475 crore), the broadcast fees paid by Multi Screen Media (MSM) to BCCI (Rs 725 crore), the broadcast ad revenue that MSM earns from the IPL (Rs 900 crore as of 2014 season), the player fees that franchises pay to BCCI (Rs 470 crore), sponsorship fees paid by sponsors of the IPL (Rs 200 crore) and individual franchises (Rs 250 crore) and gate fees (Rs 120 to 160 crore).
Source : BS
