We are deliberately being put through a tough time: Kochi CEO

Strongly reacting to Lalit Modi's statement that there was a question mark over the owners of Kochi franchise, its CEO Shailandra Gaikwad today hit back at the IPL commissioner, saying the new team was deliberately made to go through a "tough time" for outbidding some big business houses.

Gaikwad said that the franchise was being targeted because it outbid some big business houses whom Modi wanted to
rope in for the subsequent editions of IPL.

"We are being put to an unnecessary process and the reasons are obvious. If we did not have all the papers in place how could we win the bid. It is unfair now to make us go through these problems," an angry Gaikwad told PTI.

He said that all the details of the owners were provided in the bid document which would have, otherwise, been rejected.

"We have submitted all the details such as, PAN card, passport and other professional documents in the bid. Everything was attached as per the requirements. So how come suddenly there is a doubt about the owners? he asked.

Gaikwad suggested that the IPL commissioner may be putting obstacles on the Kochi franchise so that he could push some other team which he favoured.

He alleged that Modi had asked a lot of personal details during the meeting with owners in Bangalore. 

"We were asked a lot of personal questions about some of our owners which we could not readily answer. He asked questions about when did you meet Sunanda (Pushkar) and other such irrelevant things.

"We said that whatever questions were unanswered we will mail all the details as soon as possible. We felt that most of the questions were planted. Before we could give all the answers he went on Twitter and said at the press conference that we did not have knowledge about all the owners," Gaikwad said.

Asked whether the Kochi franchise, which won the bid for a whopping Rs 1533 crore, was contemplating legal action against Modi for breaking the confidentiality terms, Gaikwad said, "we don't want to take legal recourse."

"We don't want to make this a legal issue. We are here for the passion of the game. We wanted to do something for cricket."

Earlier, Modi had said that he is in dark about the owners of Kochi franchise and would call a meeting of the IPL governing council after April 25 to discuss the issue.

"As regards all earlier franchisees we know who the owners are. They come, they attend conferences and meetings but as far as Kochi IPL is concerned we had a question mark," he said at a press conference in Mumbai.