The relationship between Sahara Group and the Indian Cricket Board had turned from bad to worse in the past month but after a "couple of not so cordial telephonic conversation" between the owners of Pune Warriors and the board top brass that had telling effect.
According to reliable sources in the Sahara Group, company supremo Subroto Roy's "telephonic conversation" with BCCI president N Srinivasan was final nail in the coffin.
"The BCCI president must have thought that it was an arm-twisting tactic used by Sahara Group's chief. Roy felt deeply insulted when he didn't find any sincere effort on the part of Srinivasan to pay heed to his grievances," a source close to Sahara Group said.
"On the contrary, the Sahara supremo was told that he can go-ahead with his pull-out threat. That was something Roy didn't expect after his decade long association with board and he didn't have any options left," the source added.
The Sahara top brass is also peeved in the manner that all their requests were turned down by IPL CEO Sundar Raman.
"One of the top Sahara officials had a not so cordial telephonic conversation with Raman. Raman was not ready to accept any of request from the top official. He was not ready to be flexible even after our long association with BCCI," the official added.
When contacted, Raman said, "It's not about me being flexible or not. There are certain guidelines made by the IPL Governing Council and every team is expected to follow that. As far as we are concerned, we haven't received any official intimation from Sahara Group. They have only issued a media release but these things are not discussed through media. IPL has nothing against Sahara Group."
It's not clear whether there is any solution to this problem but certainly the two political heavyweights in the BCCI, Arun Jaitley and IPL chairman and union minister Rajiv Shukla will have a big role in order to end the impasse.
