BCCI rejects Sahara's demand for fielding 6 foreign players

The working committee of the BCCI is learnt to have unanimously rejected Sahara Group's primary demand of allowing their franchise Pune Warriors to field six foreign players for the next edition of Indian Premier League (IPL).

"The president apprised the Working Committee about Sahara's demands -- one of the primary issue being allowed six foreign players for the next edition. The entire working committee was unanimous in its opinion that this demand is unacceptable and hence it was turned down," a senior BCCI official preferring anonymity, told PTI today.

Elaborating on the issue, the official said, "The demand was certainly illogical as members felt that it would aggrieve the eight other franchises. The members felt that in order to meet one aggrieved party's demand, you can't irk eight other stakeholders in the BCCI property."

The other issue was BCCI returning a part of the bank guarantee after the number of matches was reduced from 94 to 74. The parent body also found the proposal "unacceptable." However the other two demands were found to be "acceptable" by the members.

"Obviously, they are entitled to get Yuvraj Singh's replacement and there was never any doubt about it. Even the president has made it clear. "Secondly, they wanted to have a strategic partner and BCCI saw no reason why they can't have one. But what the committee understood is that their demand of six foreign players is non-negotiable.

The committee has also made its stand clear," the official further stated. Miffed by the BCCI rejection of their demands, the Sahara Group accused the Board of leaking information about their meeting in Mumbai and sought to give their version of events.