Dalmiya seeks clarity on IPL and CLT20 issues

Jagmohan Dalmiya, the Cricket Association of Bengal president, has asked the BCCI for clarifications on several issues regarding distribution of revenues from the IPL and Champions League Twenty20. The most significant instance relates to compensation following the cancellation of the 2008 Champions League Twenty20 - Dalmiya has said Rajasthan Royals and Chennai Super Kings, the two Indian entrants in the tournament, appear to have been "overpaid a sum of Rs 36.8 crores" [approximately $8 million] after the tournament was cancelled in December 2008, in the aftermath of the Mumbai terrorist attacks.

Dalmiya, a former BCCI president, says his point of concern was that the money, which should have been distributed among the BCCI's member associations, appears to have been shared by two IPL franchises instead.

In his five-page dossier, a copy of which is with Cricinfo, handed over to the BCCI following a verbal submission at Sunday's working committee meeting, Dalmiya lists out how the two franchises - one owned by N Srinivasan, the board secretary, and the other by a group of investors, including Lalit Modi's brother-in-law - appeared to have been compensated for the cancelled tournament. The BCCI was entitled to pay Rs 10.2 crore [approximately $2.3 million] to the two teams, the same amount that it had released - as stated in the BCCI's annual report - to the boards of Australia and South Africa for distribution among their teams.

However, he says, the BCCI itself sanctioned Rs 20.8 crores [$4.6 million] for Chennai and Rajasthan, while Rs 26.2 crores [$5.9 million] was paid separately by the IPL governing council, according to the minutes of its meeting on August 11, 2009.

Dalmiya felt "at the most a sum of Rs 5.1 crores could be paid to each of the two franchises - provided they could provide evidence of the loss suffered - which was evidently not provided to the Working Committee." His note pointed out that it was never mandatory for the board to pay any compensation in case of cancellation of the Champions League. "There was no contractual obligation of BCCI to pay any monies to the Franchisees on account of cancellation of CLT-20." This fact, he said, was suppressed from the working committee.

Cricinfo had reported the bailout for the two IPL franchises last year. At the time Modi, confirming the news, said part of the payment had already been released to the two franchises. None of the other six participating teams had at the time been paid any compensation by the other national boards. The cancellation of the tournament cost each team a guaranteed participation fee of $500,000 and a share of the total prize money of $6 million, apart from potential sponsorship revenue.

Dalmiya's note, and his assertion that it was based on the BCCI's annual report and accounts for 2008-09, will raise further questions over the role of senior BCCI officials who also served on the IPL and would have been party to such high-level decisions.