BCCI terminates 'Pune Warriors'

26 October 2013 09:26 am Views - 4022

The Indian Premier League's 2014 season will see eight instead of nine teams competing after the BCCI on Saturday terminated the Sahara Group-owned Pune Warriors India (PWI), sources told CNN-IBN.

PWI had insisted on arbitration with BCCI but no solution could be arrived at. The Sahara Group had earlier in May announced its pull-out from the IPL after the BCCI encashed its bank guarantee due to non-payment of franchise fee. But Pune hadn't formally conveyed its pullout to the BCCI.

The board wanted Sahara to furnish a bank guarantee of Rs 170.2 crore to remain part of the league next year. But Sahara reckoned the franchise fee should be lowered since the BCCI did not deliver on its promised number of IPL matches for the team.Pune was the most expensive team in the IPL, bought by Sahara for USD 370 million (approx Rs 1702 crore) in 2010.