KOCHI TUSKERS

KOCHI TUSKERS

Kochi Tuskers Keralawas a franchisecricket teamthat played in theIndian Premier League (IPL)representing the city ofKochi, Kerala. The team was one of two new franchisees added to the Indian Premier League (IPL) for the2011 season, alongside thePune Warriors India. The team franchise was owned by Kochi Cricket Pvt Ltd., which was aconsortiumof multiple companies. Their first IPL match was againstRoyal Challengers Bangaloreon 9 April 2011 and their first win was againstMumbai Indianson 15 April 2011. Their last match, before being terminated, was on 18 May 2011 against theChennai Super Kings.On 19 September 2011, the BCCI announced that the Kochi Tuskers Kerala IPL franchise was terminated for breaching its terms of agreement.[1]This meant that the 2011 IPL season was the only season in which the Kochi team participated.On 8 July 2015, the former Chief Justice of India RC Lahoti led justice panel ruled in favor of the Kochi franchise after an arbitration regarding BCCI's decision to encash the bank guarantee given by Kochi Tuskers in 2011. As a result the BCCI was ordered to pay a Rs. 550 crore Penalty and failing to do so would mean an 18 percent annual penalty .However the Franchise owners instead of the money wants their franchise to be reinstated for the next season. The BCCI also informed that majority of their members were of the opinion that the BCCI should appeal against this decision and a final decision was taken to challenge the decision in the Bombay High Court.Contents[hide]1Winning the auction2Initial franchise issues3Team Name and Home Ground Issues4Ownership5Termination from IPL6Sponsorships7Grounds8Player Auction and squad9Honours102011 squad11Team colours12Fixtures and results12.1Overall12.22011 season13Signature song14See also15References16External linksWinning the auction[edit]The auction for expanding the initial eight franchises for theIndian Premier Leaguewas held on 22 March 2010. The cities involved in theauctionwerePune,Ahmedabad,Kochi,Nagpur,Kanpur,Dharamsala,Visakhapatnam,Rajkot,Cuttack,Vadodara,IndoreandGwalior. Two new teams were selected out of 12 teams, which bid for 2011 IPL matches.Sahara Groupmade the highest bid in the auction and chose to base its team in Pune, at the cost of U$370m (1702 crore).[2]Rendezvous Sports World made the second highest bid of15.33billion, and elected to base its team in Kochi.[3]The two newfranchiseswere sold for a combined sum of money, which was greater than the combined purchase price of all the original eight IPL franchises.[4]With the Kochi team and Pune team participating in the 2011 IPL tournament, all four southern states in India had an IPL franchise, while Maharashtra has two IPL franchises.On 19 September 2011, the Kochi Tuskers Kerala was terminated by the BCCI due to a breach in their contract terms.Initial franchise issues[edit]The franchise had been at the centre of many controversies since its inception. BCCI had given the franchise ultimatum to dissolve factionalism and infighting or face scrapping. After a series of lengthy meetings the company sent a letter to the BCCI requesting more time stating that the negotiations were in an advanced stage and they needed some more time to be sorted.[5]The BCCI announced that on 27 October it would decide the fate of the Kochi team and the BCCI insisted that the two cases of the Kochi Tuskers Kerala andKings XI PunjabandRajasthan Royalswhich were expelled are different.[6]The IPL Governing council decided to give them a 30-day termination notice which meant that the franchise would have to reply to the notice within 30 days and if the IPL accepted their agreement then the franchise would no longer face the prospect of being terminated[7]The Kochi promoters submitted a letter to the BCCI officials with regard to the revised structure of agreement hammered out between them. The BCCI governing council meeting was held on 28 Nov 2010 at Nagpur to decide the fate of Kochi franchisee. BCCI president Shashank Manohar said the board needed more time to discuss the issue and to take legal opinion and that the final decision on Kochi Tuskers Kerala will be taken on the BCCI governing council meeting at Mumbai on 5 December 2010.[8]After much speculation it was finally announced by the BCCI that it was satisfied with the agreements signed by the franchise owners and the team would participate in the 2011 IPL Season.Team Name and Home Ground Issues[edit]Kochi team management had announced "Indi Commandos Kerala" as the original team name in February 2011. The name and logo received much negative response from the fans worldwide.[9]Things got worse by team management's further decision to drop "Kerala" from the team name and the reported move toAhmedabadas the home ground;[10]comparatively high entertainment tax in Kerala (36%) was cited as the reason for the latter.[11]This invoked a mass response in the social networking sites, particularly on Facebook,[12]forcing the management to ultimately change the team name and logo. As a result, a voting poll was set up in the official site and the fans were provided the option the vote between either Kochi or Kerala as the first part of the name and the second part of the name from any of Titans, Tuskers, Tigers, Commandos and United.[13]Tuskers which won this polling was selected as the team name and the full name was released as Kochi Tuskers Kerala.[14]The decision to change the home ground also was dropped by the team management whenCorporation of Cochindecided to waive off a 50% in the entertainment tax which now is 18% per game.[15]Ownership[edit]The original shareholding pattern of KTK was:Rendezvous Sports World(26%)Parinee Developers (26%)Anchor Earth (27%)Film Waves (12%)Anand Shyam (8%)Vivek Venugopal (1%)Of the 26% held byRendezvous Sports Worldin whose name the title rights were vested, the Gaekwads would only get (10%) free plus (1%) paid, Sunanda Pushkar (5%) and another (10%) was reserved for the brand ambassador for the team.The restructured shareholding pattern was:Anchor Earth (31.4%)Parinee Developers (30.6%)Film Waves Combine (13.5%)Anand Shyam (Anand Shyam Estates and Developers Pvt Ltd) (9.5%)Vivek Venugopal (Elite Group of Companies) (5%)Rendezvous Sports World(10%)The team was removed from the Indian Premier League after the consortium failed to pay the yearly union dues to BCCI.Termination from IPL[edit]On 19 September 2011, BCCI president N Srinivasan announced that the Kochi Tuskers Kerala IPL franchise was terminated by the BCCI because they failed to provide a bank guarantee to cover their annual fee.[16]The franchise's plea seeking to restrain the BCCI from encashing its bank guarantee of1.56billion was rejected by a single bench of Justice SF Vajifdar.[16]On 14 October 2011, the IPL Governing Council announced that there would be only nine teams participating in 2012 after the Kochi franchise was expelled from the league.[17]The players from the Kochi Tuskers were auctioned to other franchises in2012 IPLplayer auction. Players who attracted no bids had their salaries covered via the team's bank guarantee from the previous season.[18]On 13 January 2012, the BCCI asked the foreign individual players who had signed contract with Kochi Tuskers to sue Kochi Tuskers' owners, with the BCCI included as party to each case.[19]There is a court case given by Rendezvous Sports World Pvt Ltd, one of the co-owners of the terminated Kochi Tuskers Kerala IPL franchise a late bid to revive the team.Sponsorships[edit]Federal Bank, a major Indian commercial bank in the private sector, with headquarters inAluva, Kerala, was be the principal sponsor of Kochi Tuskers Kerala.[20]The tickets for KTK's home matches were sold through Federal bank branches and their website.The Ticket sales of Kochi Tuskers Kerala was officially started in a ceremony hosted at the Le Meridian Hotel Kochi, on 28 March. Soon after, the tickets become available at the teams official ticketing partner website kyazoonga.com.[21]Lotto, an Italian sports goods manufacturer was the apparel sponsor for the team.[22]V-Guard, an electronics company and AVT, a tea brand were the associate sponsors.Elite Foods,Parinee DevelopersandAnchor Earthare the other main sponsors.Grounds[edit]The two home grounds of the Kochi Tuskers Kerala were theJawaharlal Nehru Stadiumin Kochi andHolkar Cricket Stadium,Indore. Five homes matches were held at Kochi and two atIndore. TheGreater Cochin Development Authoritycompletely over-hauled the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium to cater for hosting IPL matches.[23]Player Auction and squad[edit]Main article:2011 IPL Players AuctionKTK bought 17 players in the IPL 2011 auction, signing five specialist batsmen, those beingMahela Jayawardene,VVS Laxman,Brad Hodge,Owais ShahandMichael Klinger. The team signed six bowlers, the most notable being Sri Lankan off-spinnerMuttiah Muralitharan. The others includeSreesanth,RP Singh,Ramesh Powar,Vinay KumarandSteve O'Keefe. Four all-rounders were signed those beingRavindra Jadeja,Steve Smith,Thisara PereraandJohn Hastings. Two renowned Wicket-keeper batsmen were signed,Brendon McCullumwho is the leading run scorer in Twenty20 Internationals andParthiv Patel. But KTK lost both the Australians all-roundersSteve SmithandJohn Hastingsfor the 2011 season due to injuries, without either of them playing a game for KTK.[24]The Sri Lankan players playing in IPL were asked to return by 5 May for a camp for upcoming England tour by theSri Lankan Cricket Board.[25]KTK's captainMahela JayawardeneandThisara Pererawere supposed to leave the team early, butBCCIand the Sri Lankan board came to an agreement and the players will now have to return only by 18 May.[26]Mahela's possible departure fuelled off many speculations thatSourav Gangulymay join the team as then KTK can request the IPL Governing Council for a replacement of him as per the rule of same base price.[27]Gangulyultimately joined the other debut team of IPL 4,Pune Warriors Indiain place of the injured fast bowler,Ashish Nehra.On 18 May 2011,Parthiv Patellead the tuskers againstChennai Super Kingsin their last group match of IPL 2011 season as skipperMahela Jayawardenehad to leave for national duty.[28]