Mumbai: Sahara Group chief Subroto Roy on Saturday defended the decision to snap ties with the BCCI but wants to ensure that the players of his IPL team do not suffer and get to play in the fifth edition of the Twenty20 league.
Roy said he is willing to negotiate with the BCCI to find a way out for his players' participation. Continue reading below
"To that extent I am flexible. I don't want my players to suffer and miss playing in IPL. I do not want to deprive my players. I am willing to sit across the table with BCCI officials and sort out the issue. I don't want to get into any legal battles," Roy said at a press conference.
Early in the day, Sahara Group announced that it was ending its sponsorship of the Indian team and pulling out of IPL. He said he would tell the Cricket Board to look out for corporates to buy his team.
"It's upto the IPL Governing Council. Money is no issue. I will pay the players the full amount," he said.
"The decision we took to end ties was not a bad one at all. We had enough of it. Any relationship does not break on one single issue only. We had a long relationship. It has to do with many issues," he said.
"There were so many genuine things we had but they (BCCI) did not give heed to such a small thing like opening the bid They did not open the bid on a technicality (when Sahara had submitted its bid for the first time in 2008). Rules were broken for other teams but we were not given natural justice," he said.
Roy also denied that the current poor run of the Indian team had anything to do with Sahara's decision to end its ties with BCCI.
"In our 11-year-long relationship the Indian team has gone through such phases. In fact it's in the Tests that the team is not performing well," said Roy, adding that he had spoken to BCCI President N Srinivasanon Friday before taking the decision on Saturday morning.
