Kerala Cricket Association to hold talks with Kochi franchise

The Kerala Cricket Association (KCA) will hold talks with the owners of the Kochi franchise on October 7 to settle outstanding problems that could prevent it from playing a part in the next IPL. The BCCI, at its annual general meeting on September 29, issued an ultimatum to the franchise owners, asking to register themselves as a company or risk being scrapped. The franchise, BCCI president Shashank Manohar said, had split into two factions, making it difficult for the board to negotiate with one legal entity.

"All the team owners have been invited for the talks and they have promised to come," KCA President TR Balakrishnan told PTI. "The owners have not registered the company under the Companies Act so far and there are certain internal issues between the different owners. So KCA has initiated steps to bring them together for the talks."

The BCCI is expected to formally issue the show-cause notices to Kochi soon and IPL chief executive Sundar Raman said that the franchises would have between ten days and two weeks to reply.

Rendezvous Sports World, a consortium of five companies, bid US$333.33m to successfully purchase the tenth franchise in an expanded fourth edition of the IPL. However, it almost immediately ran into a controversy when Lalit Modi, the then IPL chairman, revealed the franchise's ownership details on his Twitter feed. The revelation triggered a chain of events that led to his own ouster from the BCCI.

"The bid was given by individuals who came together and formed a consortium. Now there is no legal entity as such that is incorporated," Manohar said on Wednesday. "So we asked them to incorporate a company, a joint venture company and then come to the BCCI. They have a recent dispute between the five persons who are there in the consortium with regards to the shares, sweat equity and other things. Both the groups have sent letters to the board saying. 'Don't recognise the other group, recognise only me.' The board cannot work with such a franchise."

When asked if Kochi would be excluded from the tournament if it didn't meet the BCCI's ultimatum, Manohar had said: "We might play with nine teams or eight teams, we don't know."

Two other franchises, Rajasthan Royals and Kings XI Punjab, have been issued show-cause notices "for various irregularities committed by them during the period of their contract".