Sahara’s pulled out due to BCCI’s ‘snubbing’

A day after the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) conducted their fifth Indian Premier League (IPL) player auction in the absence of Sahara Pune Warriors, curious details have emerged of hectic backroom negotiations leading up to the walkout by the franchise. Despite giving the BCCI a 9 am cut-off time – a good two hours before the start of the auction — none of the BCCI officials bothered to get in touch with the Warriors management even as they were about to leave the auction venue, says a report in The Times Of India.

According to the national daily, Warriors’ owner Sushanto Roy, franchise director Abhijit Sarkar and former India captain Sourav Ganguly were all present at the venue, but no Board official got in touch with them either in person or via telephone or e-mail. Sources say Sahara were left with the impression the Board “simply did not care”.

However, the BCCI was hopeful of sorting out issues with Sahara. According to newspaper reports the BCCI was making efforts to pacify the corporate giant and retain its financial backing. “We are very confident that the Pune Warriors will participate in the IPL and the matter would be resolved. They have not given anything to us in writing about the pullout,” a top IPL source told PTI.

Coming to domestic cricket, Parvinder Awana seemed to be continuing the good form when his spell of 5/24 on the second morning of the Duleep Trophy semifinal against East Zone laid a platform for North to take control on Sunday. The hosts ended the day at 162/3, trailing by 153 runs. The last time he bowled at the Ferozeshah Kotla, Awana (6/84) picked up five wickets in a morning session against Baroda to force a victory.