RN Sports Club Looking to Buy IPL’s Deccan Chargers

Mumbai-based RN Sports Club, backed by a celebrity and a businessman, has revealed their intentions to purchase the Deccan chargers team outright and bypass the bidding process.

The club located in South Mumbai is willing to pay Rs 9-11 billion ($198 million) for the team and will have a meeting with Deccan Chronicle tomorrow.

According to the club’s marketing head Ankush Tripathi, the BCCI has also been informed of the intention.

“There is a clause in the bid document which allows a party to buy the franchise if the owners agree. We do not want to go through the bid process. RN Sports Club management is constantly in conversations with the BCCI and the Deccan Chargers management for this deal,” he tells Indiantelevision.com.

Tripathy believes the breakeven period can be achieved in three years. “The team will retain the same name and be based in Hyderabad. As per the terms in the bid document, this cannot be changed,” he says.

The club’s promoter is Vijay Barhate. The aim of R.N. Sports club is to promote cricket. “We have been wanting to purchase an IPL team since IPL-4, as we already conduct various successful talent hunt camps at an all India school level. We have also done talent hunt camps aboard, We have cricket coaching centres in several places including Mumbai, Pune and Nagpur. We also have cricket academies in Mumbai. The aim of purchasing our own team is to promote the young cricketers of nation.”

Interestingly R.N. Sports Club had a deal with Rajasthan Royals for running a talent hunt. Tripathi says that the MoU expired and so the club chose not to renew it. Earlier Rajasthan Royals had said that it had terminated the deal over non payment of dues which Tripathi flatly denied. For him, owning a franchise is the next step.

Other names doing the rounds who could bid for the franchise include Videcon, Adani Group and former Satyam COO Srini Raju who is now Peepul Capital co-founder, chairman.