IPL 8: Chennai Super Kings owners undervalue team at just Rs.5 lakhs

Another controversy?

Chennai Super Kings are no strangers to controversy. In yet another controversy, it has emerged that the N Srinivasan, former BCCI president and owner of CSK has declared the value of the team at Rs.5 lakhs.

Earlier this year, Chennai Super Kings Ltd was formed by India Cements, for which Srinivasan is managing director and promoter, after the Supreme Court passed an order citing a conflict of interest for the ex-BCCI chief between running it and owning the IPL team through India Cements. This was done to transfer the ownership of CSK from the hands of India Cements to a wholly owned subsidiary.

According to Indian Express, the team was grossly undervalued in order to reduce the fee (5 percent of the value) the owners had to pay the BCCI from the sale of the Chennai Super Kings. If the current valuation is to be accepted, the board will get a mere sum of Rs.25,000 from the sale.

This came as a shock to the newly formed IPL governing council which had its meeting on Monday. Jyotiraditya Scindia was present as a special invitee and raised his concerns regarding the absurd amount the CSK team was valued at.

“Jyotiraditya Scindia, who was present as a special invitee, was the first to raise the issue. He insisted that it wasn’t possible for CSK to be valued at Rs 5 lakh when India Cements has been paying an annual franchise fee of Rs 40 crore to the BCCI,” an anonymous source who attended the IPL meeting told the Indian Express.

“In case of such a transfer, the franchise is levied a 5 per cent fee of the evaluation amount, and 5 per cent of Rs 5 lakh is pittance. The members voiced their dissent over this discrepancy,” the source said.

It is unclear that how the owners evaluated the team at just Rs.5 lakhs when last year a report by US-based consultancy concluded the brand value of CSK at 400 crores.

According to Headlines Today, who is in possession of minutes of the old council's meeting, state that old IPL governing council didn’t raise their voice against such low valuation.

To make matters worse for Srinivasan, it is learnt from a source of Indian Express, that BCCI will be remove him from the post of ICC Chairman. Under the new rules governing the ICC, the chairman tenure is for two years and BCCI can nominate a new person to head ICC if it so desires.

“Srinivasan will be BCCI’s representative as ICC chairman till September 2015. In September, we will have our Annual General Meeting (AGM) as per schedule where there would be discussions about the way forward for us.” Anurag Thakur told The Indian Express.