The Kochi Tuskers saga finally comes to an end

The franchise Kochi Tuskers had been abruptly terminated from the Indian Premier League, six seasons ago with Shashank Manohar at the helm of affairs at the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI). Since then negotiations between the two have been on, and finally, they have come to a conclusion, with ‘fruitful’ negotiations on the cards.

On the 25th of June, the top office bearers of the BCCI, along with the Committee of Administrators, met the co-owners of the franchise in Mumbai to arrive at a settlement. The two parties had put in a lot of negotiations before the meeting was organised between the two.

Termination and Arbitration 

Kochi Tuskers was wrongfully terminated from the tournament in September 2011, while BCCI decided to encash Tuskers’ bank guarantees valuing up to INR 153.33 crore. The owners of the franchise decided to take up this case to the court, which was seen by the Chief Justice of India RC Lahoti.

After a long and tedious procedure that continued for four years, RC Lahoti has awarded the arbitration in favour of Tuskers, and the award states in its very first sentence that the “termination (of Kochi Tuskers) was wrong and a declaration should be sought from BCCI that the termination was wrongful.”

As per the Times Group, the arbitration, as per clause 8.1.29, dated June 22, 2015, further stated that BCCI would pay Kochi Tuskers the following damages incurred:

A) General damages: INR 153.33 Cr, B) Special damages: INR 231.50 Cr – accruing to total damages in the range of INR 385 cr. [Approx]

Kochi Tuskers have the last laugh

In addition to the damages mentioned, the BCCI also has to pay Tuskers the bank guarantee amount of INR 153,33,31,800, all of which put together totals up to Rs 540 cr.

Apart from this, the franchise is also expected to get an interest at 18% per annum with effect from September 2011 till the date of realisation, alongside the other expenses such as legal fees and other cost incurred.

Earlier in 2012, the media reported that a senior Supreme Court counsel, advising the board at that time, had categorically told Manohar not to terminate the franchise. “Yet, he went ahead and sacked them. To what cost? To pay close to Rs 600 crore of public money for a battle that BCCI was never going to win?” the counsel had said.