After another round of legal scrutiny, BCCI has cleared CVC Capital Ventures and have declared them ‘fit and proper’ to own an IPL franchise. According to available information, post few hours of discussion on Wednesday evening CVC also signed a Letter of Intent ending all speculation about their ownership of the Ahmedabad franchsie.
The development comes after former IPL boss Lalit Modi had taken a dig at the Sourav Ganguly-led Board of Cricket Control in India (BCCI) for allowing the entry of private equity firm CVC Capital Partners in the Indian Premier League (IPL) due to its investments in companies linked to betting activities.
However, it is learnt BCCI did another round of legal scrutiny of CVC’s investments on Wednesday, on whether there was any non-declaration on its part while submitting the bid. The BCCI official said “none of the bidding parties had raised an issue with the winning bids & found them to be fit and proper to own an IPL Franchise”. Parties have started legal paperwork according to information available with InsideSport.
CVC, which calls itself a “world leader in private equity and credit with $125 billion of assets under management”, shelled out Rs 5625 crore for buying the Ahmedabad franchise in the world’s biggest T20 league.
“I guess betting companies can buy a @ipl team. must be a new rule. apparently one qualified bidder also owns a big betting company. what next? does @BCCI not do there homework. what can Anti corruption do in such a case?” Modi tweeted on Tuesday.
Earlier on Tuesday, InsideSport also reached out to BCCI treasurer Arun Dhumal who was part of the team that has overseen the bid process. Dhumal clarified no formal complaint has been received in this regard & denied any wrongdoing on part of CVC or the bid process.
“CVC Capitals won the bid because of their bid amount. There are a lot of things still to be worked on. Their stakes or interests in other activities have nothing to do with IPL Bidding. If there is any complaint we will address that in due course of time. For now, there is nothing to add to the statements we released on Monday”.
The other new franchise of IPL was sanctioned to Sanjeev Goenka promoted RPSG Ventures. Goenka won Lucknow franchise for record 7090 crores.
The IPL also attracted bids from owners of iconic football club Manchester United.
“None of the bidders in the room had any issues with the bidding process. It was done in the most transparent manner. The winning bids only showed the increasing global appeal of the IPL.”
