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Friday, May 24, 2013

'Won't sponsor Team India if Srini stays'


NEW DELHI: Sahara India chief Subrata Roy put the blame squarely on BCCI president N Srinivasan for Pune Warriors' pullout from the Indian Premier League and said his company would also withdraw sponsorship of the Indian cricket team if Srinivasan continued as board president.

In a scathing attack on Srinivasan on Friday, Roy said the BCCI top boss didn't have the 'basic courtesy' to even respond to his calls. "We won't sponsor the Indian team if Srinivasan continues. Whenever I tried to reach him over the phone, he would say things like he is busy with his grandson. The BCCI chief doesn't know how to run a sports body. There is no sportsman spirit. I have been waiting for IPL commissioner Rajeev Shukla's reply as well. We enjoyed dealing with BCCI till Shashank Manohar was at the helm. Now, it's tough to carry on if Srinivasan continues," Roy said.


The Sahara chief also pointed at Srinivasan's conflict of interest. "How can he own a team and run the most important sports body of the country? And on top of it his relative is being linked to the fixing scandal," he fumed.


The owner of the league's costliest franchise (bought at $370 million - approx Rs 1,700 crore) asserted that the attitude of Srinivasan was "disgusting".


"The attitude of the cricket board and its boss has been very sad. Under the current circumstances, if I were in his place, I would have stepped down from the post till the time the probe is on," Roy told TOI.


When asked if Sahara could get back to IPL in the future if the BCCI agreed for a settlement on the payment dispute, he said: "We won't talk to them now. Their attitude should be good."


Sahara's decision to withdraw came within hours of the BCCI encashing bank guarantees worth Rs 137 crore submitted by the group when it had bought the franchise. Sahara maintained that despite its repeated pleas to the board to reduce its franchise fee, nothing happened.


Accusing Srinivasan of being a bully, Roy said: "He waited for our last IPL game to happen and the next day he was at the bank and threatened them to make the payment that day itself, else he would sue them in court. Is this the way to deal? Even people doing nasty business don't have such an attitude," Roy fumed.


Commenting on Chennai Super Kings distancing itself from Srinivasan's son-in-law M Gurunath, Roy said: "It's for the police and the administrators to understand. If my son is not part of team management and starts betting, he could still easily manipulate the team combination and team strategies."






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Shweta Pandey

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