IPL teams offer players money under the table

Few desperate franchisees are offering huge amounts of money “ under the table” to their targeted uncapped players in a crazy rush to strengthen their teams for the lucrative Indian Premier League (IPL). It is reliably learnt that some franchisees are going all out to get such players, telling them that they would officially meet the IPL requirements on maximum payment for uncapped cricketers and pay the rest under different heads.

This maddening rush to sign established or promising domestic players has hit the IPL catchment area rule for a six, with one prominent team official describing the stipulation as a “ mere tokenism”. “ I know a few prominent franchisees which are luring some players who have already played in the IPL with huge amounts of money and those players are bargaining hard with the teams they have represented earlier,” a top official associated with the IPL informed. “ In one case, a player, who falls in the Rs 30-lakh category by virtue of having made his first-class debut before 2005-06 and plays only in domestic tournaments now, was offered Rs 75 lakh by a franchisee based in South. The official assured him that the rest of the money would be paid under the table,” he said.

Well before the player auction took place in Bangalore on Saturday and Sunday, officials of the 10 franchisees visited venues where domestic tournaments were being played. This took the players’ focus off matches in some cases like that of the Delhi team in Ranji Trophy.

According to the IPL rules, franchisees can sign those players who have made their debut between 2006-07 and 2008-09 for a maximum Rs 20 lakh and those who are yet to make their first class or List A debut in 2009-10 or 2010-11 can be signed for a maximum of Rs 10 lakh.

A franchisee based in western India has reportedly offered a humongous amount to a north Indian batsman who made his debut during the ongoing season and has played a handful of first class matches. “ This franchisee has either signed, or is on the verge of signing him, for close to Rs 1 crore, which is a mind boggling figure for a green horn. In this case, too, the rest of the money is being offered under the table,” he said.

In another case, a franchisee is said to have offered to pay a player employed with it through his wife. “ Since this player is employed with that company, an official told the player that he would show his wife as a consultant in the company and deposit the excess money in her account,” he said.

Several domestic players are bargaining hard as they are in talks with several franchisees at the same time. Royal Challengers Bangalore’s (RCB) Manish Pandey, for instance, has been reportedly offered a huge sum by another franchisee. But the RCB is not ready to part with the hard hitting batsman, who was the first Indian to score a century in the IPL, leading to bad blood.

Certain franchisees’ mad rush to sign players fails to justify the logic of catchment area rule. “ The concept of catchment area is a tokenism and serves little purpose and because there’s no incentive for indulging in development of cricket in that area,” Delhi Daredevils COO Amrit Mathur informed us. Mathur points out the absence of a rule that would give some advantage to franchisees to retain uncapped players once their contracts are over. “ There should be a method by which franchisees should have the first preferential right over players from their catchment areas. And there has to be some reason to invest in one’s catchment area,” he said.

IPL CEO Sundar Raman said that franchisees are aware of the catchment area regulations and also in cases when more than one team owner approaches an uncapped player.

“ The process is simple — once a player and a franchisee have come to an agreement, based on cricketing considerations, they send across a request and the contract is sent across to the franchisee for signature,” Raman said. “ If more than one franchisee is interested in a player then the BCCI will directly get in touch with the player to seek his decision on which franchisee he wants to play for.” But in reality some franchisees are not adhering to the rules.