IPL funds fiasco: CAB may lose over Rs 3.5 crore

Three weeks before Eden Gardens hosts the opening match of this season’s IPL Twenty20 Championship,the CAB is caught in a dilemma. As things stand,the Dalmiya-led dispensation has no option but to forgo its rightful claim of Rs 3.76 crore as expense reimbursement from Knight Riders. CAB officials claim that they are “under pressure” from a section of the BCCI to drop the claim of getting reimbursed by the KKR for that sum. And if the CAB sticks to its claim of Rs 3.76 crore from Shah Rukh Khan’s franchisee,then the BCCI will withhold or big-time delay the payment of Rs 10 crore to the CAB that is overdue,according to CAB insiders.

During the inaugural edition of the IPL carnival last year,the CAB had overshot the Rs 3.5 crore budget of organising the seven matches at Eden Gardens by Rs 3.76 crore. Later,when the CAB requested franchisee KKR to reimburse the total IPL expense of Rs 7.26 crore,Shah Rukh’s production company turned down the claim,offering no more than Rs 3.5 crore.

Meanwhile,the CAB is supposed to get a Rs 10-crore cheque from the BCCI as share of profit from last summer’s IPL championship. And CAB treasurer Subir Ganguly hinted that the Board has tacitly told the CAB to let go of the Rs 3.76-crore claim from KKR if it wants the Rs 10-crore cheque on time.

Speaking to The Indian Express this evening,Ganguly confirmed what appears to be a clear case of arm-twisting by the BCCI. “Yes,the situation is like this,what can we do? The case of overspending during the last IPL is now in the hands of a three-member committee looking into the matter. And as for this problem of reimbursement claim and the pending Rs 10-crore cheque,we have decided to leave it to a general body meeting,which we will conduct soon,hopefully before the IPL begins next month,” he said.

The CAB treasurer continued: “Whether we should give up claiming the excess reimbursement from KKR so that BCCI gives us Rs 10 crore,depends on what the members in the general body meeting decide.”

Desperate to seek a solution,Dalmiya & Co want to hold a general body meeting before the IPL begins on April 11.

Meanwhile,the three-member special panel,which was formed by the CAB to investigate into alleged cases of fund mismanagement during the previous edition of the IPL,is expected to submit its report to Dalmiya in 7-8 days. The committee,comprising Justice Shyamal Sen,Justice Dilip Basu and former IT commissioner N Sengupta,recently grilled a couple of former CAB officials over the IPL funds fiasco.