 The Board of Control for Cricket in India has severed its relations with
IMG, the company that had been hired to look into the organising and the conducting
of the Indian Premier League in its first two editions. This seems to have
happened because of the clash over payment with the sports management company.
IMG the world's premier and most diversified sports, entertainment and media company.
The reason for this discontinuation of services has been the fact that the
BCCI thinks that the IMG charges much more than what they provide. BCCI's secretary,
N.Srinivasan, has reported shot off an email to Andrew Wildblood - VP
of IMG - apprising him of the situation and cutting off the ties. The first
edition of the IPL had seen the BCCI pay IMG more than Rs.42 crores for managing
the first season. This included end-to-end management from conceptualisation
to marketing.
However, at the end of the second edition of the Indian Premier League, the
BCCI had called upon Wildblood in order to ask him to reduce the price for the
services that they were providing. The BCCI had also asked Wildblood to send
across a reconsidered bid for the same by 13th of August, so that the same could
be discussed during the working committee meeting of BCCI. With Wildblood not
submitting the bid, the BCCI seems to have gone ahead with their decision to
discontinue the contract. None of the entities, the BCCI or the IMG has commented
on the issue yet.
However, despite this decision, the BCCI entourage has been divided over the
issue. Some within the BCCI camp have said that this is a decision which has
been intended to reduce Lalit Modi power within the IPL, while others
have called the decision to sack IMG as one of its partner as shocking. A BCCI
official went up to the extent of saying that given the manner in which the
services were provided by IMG, it wouldn't have been too bad if the IMG would
be paid even more than what they were being paid currently. The official, most
probably from the Modi camp added, "You ask those who have been involved
with the IPL and they will tell you what quality of services have been rendered.
This is no way to treat them."
IMG is said to have been contemplating on how to tackle the issue in a legal
manner, and will most probably draw BCCI to court.
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