Pawar admits to small stake in RCB

Monday, June 7, 2010

Former BCCI chief and current Union Minister Sharad Pawar has disclosed his links with the Royal Challengers Bangalore, where he owns a small percentage by way of having 51,000 shares in Vijay Mallya's United Spirits Limited (USL). The Royal Challengers Bangalore franchise is wholly owned by USL.

Pawar's links with City Corporation, who had bid unsuccessfully for the Pune franchise, had emerged via a report in the Times of India, upon which the Pawar family came out with strong statements denying their role or ownership of anything in the IPL.

Pawar, however, has a link with the Bangalore franchise, with the Pawars owning more than 51,000 shares (currently valued at about Rs. 6 crores) in USL, of which Royal Challengers Sports Private Ltd (RCSPL) is a wholly-owned subsidiary.

Vijay Mallya, however, has defended Sharad Pawar, saying that USL was a public company and had lakhs of share-holders. He said it was absurd to connect the fact that Pawar had shares in USL with ownership of RCB, since by that logic every person who had a share in USL was an owner of RCB.

"It is absurd to say that Sharad Pawar owns any stake in the Royal Challengers Bangalore," Mallya told television channels. "USL has lakhs of subscribers, so are they all owners of RCB? By any yardstick does that seem feasible?" 

The Pawars shareholding in USL, which is about 0.05 per cent of the company's equity came up through a merger of Baramati Grape Industries Ltd in 2006, where Pawar's family has a 'significant stake'. The Minister's brother is a director with USL.

The shares are largely held via Lap Finance and Consultancy Pvt Ltd, a family enterprise of the Pawars, which holds at least 13,950 shares of USL.

Lap Finance is fully owned by Sharad Pawar, his wife Pratibha and daughter Supriya Sule. Each of them holds one-third of the shares in the company.

sourceby: cricbuzz.com

IPL easy target for match-fixers: Gilchrist

LONDON: The organisers may insist it as clean but Deccan Chargers' Australian skipper Adam Gilchrist feels the Indian Premier League is an "easy target" for match-fixers as players are accessible during the event. 

"It's been discussed among players in the IPL - more wondering whether it goes on. There's a strong thought that we'd be naive to think it's not happening, because it's a pretty easy target. There's a lot of accessibility to players and it's early in its governance," Gilchrist, who is here to play for county side Middlesex, said. 

The retired wicketkeeper-batsman said corruption in cricket can only be stopped by heightened vigilance. 

"I've been made more aware of it since getting here, seeing some of those comments from players who have been approached," Gilchrist told 'The Daily Telegraph'. 

"I'd be concerned if it was happening, but I haven't seen anything concrete to say it is. You need evidence, and I've not seen any. 

"I hear suggestions and whispers, and this stuff that's come out - police coming and arresting players - is pretty hardcore. But unless you get evidence and have something to back it up, it all means nothing. So all the speculation is not good for the game, either," he added. 

The IPL is in the middle of a raging controversy presently over the ownership patterns of the eight franchises and money laundering. 

The league's Commissioner Lalit Modi has been suspended on charges of financial bunglings and there are also whispers of betting and match-fixing in the event.

source by:timesofindia.indiatimes.com