Just in its second year and so many legal battles! At one end, Sony has moved the court against BCCI’s termination of contract. In another incident, the defending IPL champions Rajasthan Royals dragged Bajaj Allianz to court on the charge of violating the MoU. But the silver lining in cloud is: as the tournament date closes in, everybody seems to wrap up their legal battles by mutual understanding. SET Max retains the agreement with Indian Premier League in a million dollar handshake; in another move, Rajasthan Royals and Bajaj Allianz reached an out of the court settlement withdrawing the court cases in Delhi and Mumbai. However this stripped Bajaj off its role of lead sponsor of the Jaipur franchise.

(Read Cricket360 related article "IPL Franchises Fear Huge Losses")

 

As pointed out by the insiders, it was a Rs.9 crore deal signed for a span of three years. It was a performance based contract. According to the MoU signed last year, it was agreed, that the payments will be released structurally as the team reaches various stages of tournament. After winning the trophy, Rajasthan Royals offered a revised proposal which the franchise believed would equally benefit both the parties. In the new proposal the defending champions increased the deal amount to Rs12 crore from Rs9 crore. And this was what sparked off differences between the two parties and finally led to the termination of MoU. The Manoj Badale owned team also dragged the premier insurance company to the court on charges of non-payment of dues.

The relation between the franchise and the insurance giant soured when Rajasthan Royals signed a deal with Bajaj’s competitor Tata AIG for the Champions League where Rajasthan Royals as last year's IPL winners was to play. It was another issue that Champions’ League never took off.

In the press conference, the Rajasthan Royals CEO Mr. Badale thanked Bajaj for supporting the team when it had been a mere underdog in last year’s twenty-20 tournament. “We have decided to withdraw the legal proceedings and resolve the issues out of court. In hindsight, after parting ways, we feel that the relationship could have been taken to a mutually beneficial level.” Manoj Badale, CEO, Rajasthan Royals, said. On the other hand, Kamesh Goyal, Country Head, Allianz and CEO, Bajaj Allianz Life Insurance, said: “We had frank and fair discussions on all the issues and have mutually agreed to terminate the present MoU.”

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3.25 Copyright (C) 2007 Alain Georgette / Copyright (C) 2006 Frantisek Hliva. All rights reserved."

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