In adding to the ongoing woes for brand IPL, The Sahara India Group decided to pulled their IPL team, Pune Warriors India, out of the Indian Premier League. The decision was taken after BCCI decided to encash the bank guarantee of team as the franchise was unable to pay the franchisee fee.

This encashment and attiture of BCCI angered Sahara management so much that they have decided not to rejoin the team even if BCCI waives off the entire franchise fee.

“We would not keep the IPL franchisee even if the entire franchisee fee is waved off. It is firm and final decision of Sahara to withdraw from IPL,” the Sahara Group said in a detailed statement.

The relationship between Sahara and BCCI went sour even before the start of this season. Sahara had bought the franchise at a whopping price of Rs 1700 crore in 2010 as the calculations at that time were done according to 94 IPL matches. But the actual number of matches were less than 94 and thus Sahara pleaded with BCCI to reduce the franchise fee. Even after regular requests, BCCI never paid any heed and thus today Sahara India decided to quit from IPL.