Rajasthan Royals says it's transparent

Rajasthan Royals (RR) said in statement that the current shareholders of Jaipur IPL Cricket Pvt. Ltd are Emerging Media IPL Ltd (Manoj Badale — 32.4 %), Tresco International Ltd (Suresh Chellaram family —44.2%), Blue Water Estate Ltd (Lachlan Murdoch — 11.7%) and Kuki Investments Ltd (Raj Kundra & family — 11.7%). It has also said that it signed the franchise agreement with the IPL on April 14, four days before the start of the DLF-IPL season one on April 18, 2008.

A BCCI official said changes in the ownership of the franchise had to be placed before the IPL Governing Council for approval and this had not happened and “in the document we have, we find only the name of Manoj Badale. The franchise agreement signed [on April 14] has the names of Fraser Castellino and Ranjit Bharthakur.”

Clarifying “certain misconceptions about the franchise which have been raised through the media,” the RR explained that the structure was completely transparent and in accordance with the regulatory guidelines. The corporate structure was established in accordance with the details provided in the bid submission shortly after the bid. “It was not established prior to the bid, as we obviously did not know if the bid would be successful.”

“No sufficient time”

“Moreover, the time allotted between the Invitation to Tender (December 27, 2007), and the bid submission date (January 23, 2008) would not have allowed sufficient time to incorporate the intended structure with an Indian entity. The investors agreed to submit the bid using a consortium led by the U.K.-based Emerging Media (IPL) Ltd. The other entities in the consortium were disclosed in the bid submission documents.

“Subsequently, on March 8, 2008, an Indian company Jaipur IPL Cricket Pvt. Ltd was incorporated as detailed in the bid submission. We then executed the franchise agreement on April 14, 2008. The ownership of the consortium did not change between the award of the bid on January 23, 2008 and the signing of the franchise agreement on April 14, 2008."