The Chargers will never be seen in the IPL again

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has announced that they have decided to terminate the Deccan Chargers, who won the 2009 edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL), after having an emergency meeting.

On September 15, the board issued a tender for a new franchise, which would replace the Chargers in next year’s Indian Premier League (IPL).

In a statement released via the BCCI, the board noted that they had taken action after having a “sudden change of stance by the franchise”, and that if they continued to give the owner of the franchise more and more time to find a new buyer, it would “seriously prejudice the interests of the players.”

“This evening, the BCCI received a lawyers’ notice invoking arbitration from the franchise stating that it had not committed any breaches and even if such breaches were committed, the BCCI should not act to terminate the franchise till Yes Bank Ltd furnishes sufficient finance to cure the breaches, by this, Deccan Chronicle Holdings Ltd has clearly admitted its inability to cure its breaches within the time stipulated in the BCCI notice despite every bit of assistance from the BCCI. Since the month of May, BCCI has received repeated assurances that the overdue player fees would be paid; all of these promises have been unfulfilled,” the statement said.

“Considering the stated position of the Deccan franchise to refuse to rectify the various defaults including payments to players, foreign Boards etc, as also the deleterious effect such conduct would have on the reputation of the IPL and the franchise itself, a decision was taken to forthwith terminate the Deccan Chargers franchise,” the statement added.

Board officials have revealed that there would be a shortlist of cities bidders can choose from, and that the city with the highest bid would officially become a new IPL franchise.

However, there is still a lingering problem for the BCCI, and that is what becomes of the players who played for the Chargers in this year’s IPL.

As of right now, no decision has been made, but either the players will be retained by the new franchise or they may be put up for auction so that other IPL teams can buy them.

The Chargers had a squad filled with international talents, Dale Steyn, Kumar Sangakkara, Cameron White, Ishant Sharma and JP Duminy just to name a few of them.

The coach was former Australian cricketer Darren Lehmann.

The Chargers have had a rather up and down time throughout all five seasons of the IPL.

After finishing at the bottom of the table in the inaugural edition, the team, led by Australian wicketkeeping legend Adam Gilchrist came roaring back to win the tournament in 2009, but in the last three editions, they have failed to ignite any of that old fire again.

The decision to terminate the Chargers franchise has finally brought an end to the issue that has been dragged on for three months after the team’s owners, Deccan Chronicles Holdings Limited (DCHL) were hit with financial woes.

Two months ago, the bank offered to help the BCCI out with the situation, and from there, the board gave the Chargers till September 15 to pay off all their debt, including player wages, and come back with a clean slate.

But, it was too little too late for DCHL, who stated that they were unable to pay off everything, and in order to recover financially, they put the franchise up for sale on September 6.

The BCCI held an auction for the franchise on September 13, but only managed to receive one bid of Rs 900 crore ($164 million) from  PVP Ventures, who are a Hyderabad-based urban infrastructure and film production company.

Upon hearing the bid for the team, DCHL refused to the price, calling it unsuitable, but with no other bidders, the BCCI may give PVP Ventures a second chance to buy the franchise.

Since DCHL were unable to come up with any other solutions, the BCCI had no choice but to terminate the franchise.