By IANS,
Mumbai : Sahara India chairman Subrata Roy was happy with the assurances given by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) but made it clear Thursday that he was against the player’s retention policy in the Indian Premier League (IPL) and demanded an open auction to make the Twenty20 league more competitive and entertaining.
Roy said that getting rid of the player retention clause would make all the teams evenly balanced.
“One request of ours is not included in the joint statement, but BCCI has definitely given us very positive assurance for looking into the matter seriously in the near future,” Roy said in a statement after reaching an agreement on most of the issues it had raised with the BCCI.
Roy said that even two weak teams in the IPL can defuse the charm of the league.
“Viewers’ interest and their point of view should be given highest priority. Viewers should enjoy each and every match preferably with a thrilling finish in the last over. That is only possible when all the teams are well balanced. Even two weak teams can start defusing the charm of IPL.
“There should be perfect level playing field. We have strongly requested open auction without any kind of retention. Due to retention policy, a disparity in player ability and corresponding payment structure is created,” he said.
Roy thanked all those, who were involved in the 12-day negotiations between the two parties.
“I genuinely appreciate all concerned senior officials of BCCI for their initiative in resolving the issue. My thanks to N. Srinivasan, Arun Jaitley, Sanjay Jagdale, Rajiv Shukla, Ajay Shirke and Sundar Raman. Emotional initiative by Shashank Manohar (ex-BCCI president) is highly appreciated. With all his positivity, Shahrukh Khan motivated everybody by going out of his way, in the interest of IPL and Cricket,” Roy said.
“I put on record the overwhelming support of media which truly helped to take it to the rightful resolution. Media has definitely proved to be so positive towards the cause of IPL and Cricket.”