IPL Owners Want Cap on Spending to Be Increased
The first meeting of IPL team owners and the BCCI since Lalit Modi’s suspension focused on player retention and the cap on spending in the new season, said media reports.
After the meeting, the team owners said that they were happy, had put forth suggestions and now the BCCI would take decisions, reports said.
Vijay Mallya, owner of the Royal Challengers Bangalore, said that a majority of the 10 franchises favoured all players going back into the auction, with none retained by any team, said reports.
It may be mentioned that the players have largely been with the same team for three seasons after the first big auction in 2008 and a complete reshuffle and new bidding had been scheduled before the fourth.
Mallya also pointed out that the franchises wanted the spending cap to be increased from 7 million dollars to 9 million dollars for each, reports said.
Lalit Modi had enforced a cap saying it would ensure a level-playing field rather than giving the opportunity to the richer franchises to walk away with the best players.
The business tycoon said that the team owners didn’t want the tournament formation to change and viewed that there should be home and away games even with two new teams, said reports.
However, Mallya declined to answer Modi questions saying, “Lalit Modi is suspended so we have to look ahead now.”
Ness Wadia, co-owner of Kings XI Punjab, said that he missed Modi, reports said.
“Modi was hanged before a trial…he was hanged by the press,” Wadia was quoted as saying.
He hoped Modi would be ‘given a fair trial by the BCCI and the Government of India’, said reports.
Wadia also confirmed that he and other owners of the team had applied to sell off stake and had received a good offer, reports said.
New IPL chief Chirayu Amin, BCCI president Shashank Manohar and secretary N Srinivasan, attended the informal meeting with the team owners to discuss the way forward before a crucial IPL governing council meet on Friday.
(Based on internet reports)
