Chennai-based cement corporate's interest in owning IPL team comes under spotlight

Who will the two temporary IPL teams be owned by?

A Chennai-based corporate named Chettinad Cements has bought the Invitation To Tender (ITT) document from the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) office. It is one of the five firms to have shown interest in owning a temporary IPL team, for the 2-year duration when Chennai Super Kings and Rajasthan Royals remain suspended from the league.

CSK, the existing Chennai franchise, are also owned by a Chennai-based cement company – India Cements, of which MS Dhoni is even the Vice-President and N Srinivasan the Managing Director.

No existing link has been found between India Cements, the party who have been banned, and Chettinad Cements – the party who are in line to be owning a Chennai-based team next season.

What muddies the waters even more is that Chettinad Cement is headed by M.A.M.R. Muthiah, who shares his name with bitter rival of N Srinivasan, AC Muthiah – leading sections of media to report that the new Chennai firm interested in IPL 8 was in fact owned by the former BCCI President.

Other firms who have expressed interest in owning the new teams include Videocon and the Goenka brothers.

CSK’s core group of players

The ownership of the two new teams that will feature in IPL 2016 is up for grabs till December 8.

According to previous reports, there are nine cities that are currently vying for the rights to host the franchises – and Kochi and Jaipur have been excluded from the race. The new teams will come in place of CSK and RR, which are serving two-year suspension terms.

Five players each from each of suspended franchises would be put up for draft while others will be auctioned. If Dhoni himself buys a team (based in Ranchi, Chennai, or some other city), as had also been reported recently, it can be assumed that his own name would be on top of the list of players to be directly drafted.

It will also be hoped by CSK fans that the quartet of Dhoni, Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja and Suresh Raina – players who have formed the core of the team for years – get to continue playing for the same unit.

After Chennai Super Kings bought him for the highest price of $1.5 million (then worth about Rs 7.5 crore) at the first IPL auction in January 2008, Dhoni has captained the team in all eight editions of the IPL so far - a record unmatched by any other player.

Chennai based Chettinad Cements evinces interest in @IPL !!! Hmm from Horses to Cricket

— sangeetha kandavel (@sang1983) November 21, 2015