The Deccan Chargers (DC) were one of the eight founding clubs which managed to win the bid for the city-based Indian Premier League (IPL). DC aggressively auctioned for batters back in the inaugural IPL auction and ended up with a star-studded team.
However, in the first season of the IPL, even with the likes of Adam Gilchrist, Andrew Symonds, Herschelle Gibbs, Rohit Sharma, Shahid Afridi and Chaminda Vaas, the Chargers was the bottom-ranked team.
In the subsequent season, DC’s went on to clinch the coveted IPL title in 2009 on South African turf. From there on, DC’s gave stiff competition to top teams such as Chennai Super Kings (CSK) with the likes of Cameron White, Kumar Sangakkara, and Shikhar Dhawan in their ranks until the 2012 season.
But then one fine day on October 12 2012, it was known that the franchises, Deccan Chronicle Holdings Limited (DCHL), pulled out of their ownership from the tournament, and BCCI handed it over to Sun Networks for a price of INR 425 crores.
It all started with an abrupt show-cause notice from the apex cricketing board in India to the DHCL, as they say, lost their ownership overnight.
Now, DHCL has won an arbitration decision which would cost the BCCI a whopping sum of 4500 crores. Interestingly, the proceedings began in the Bombay High Court back in 2012 after the franchise’s contract was terminated, post-failure to deposit a bank guarantee of INR 100 crores.
“The sole arbitrator on Friday upheld the termination to be illegal and granted damages to the tune of Rs 630 crores and compensation to DCHL to the tune of Rs 4160 crores,” said Maneesha Dhir, Managing Partner of Dhir & Dhir Associates.
“DCHL has also been granted Rs 36 crore as an admitted amount payable under the Franchise Agreement,” Dhir, who represented DHCL, told The Indian Express.
“The arbitral tribunal found that the termination was premature and illegal,” said Ashish Pyasi, associate partner of Dhir & Dhir Associates.
“The termination was done only to accommodate one of the teams who had decided to have a cricketing franchise. The law was thrown to wind, decency was thrown to wind in taking such a decision. This is the fallout of such a decision for an institution,” said Shankar. He was part of the committee of creditors of DCHL under insolvency resolution and faced loss in this deal.
