Everything is fine with Kochi IPL team, say owners

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM - Vivek Venugopal, co-owner of Kochi’s Indian Premier League (IPL) franchise, Tuesday said everything is fine with the newly acquired team and things are going smoothly and the team’s office would be opened soon.

“Kochi would be hosting the home matches of the team next year and we would also be glad to hold matches in Thiruvananthapuram. If that has to happen, the BCCI (Board of Control for Cricket in India) will have to be taken into confidence,” said Venugopal to reporters here after the meeting with the Kerala Cricket Association (KCA).

Rendezvous Sports World in March won the franchise for the Kochi IPL team for a record price of Rs.1500 crore.

Apart from Venugopal, other co-owners like chief executive officer of Rendezvous P.T.Keshav, Mohan Shah (Anchor Group), Owal Shah (Paraneeam Developers), Kailash (Film Waves), and local MP Shashi Tharoor, who was largely instrumental in putting across the franchisees together, took part in the meeting with the officials of Kerala Cricket Association (KCA) here.

“Various names are being considered and very soon we will announce the name of the team,” said Venugopal.

When asked about the role of Tharoor, Venugopal said he is the mentor, well wisher, supporter and fan of the team.

On Sunanda Pushkar’s holding, Venugopal said that she has requested for withdrawal and for that to happen it would take some time because it has to go through a process.

“At the moment there is no change in the owners and it stands as it was,” said Venugopal, who preferred not to be drawn into any questions concerning Pushkar.

Keshav added that the finances of the Kochi IPL team are transparent.

KCA secretary T.C.Mathew later said this is a big opportunity for budding cricketers.

“We are soon going to conduct a league to identify the local talent because we need a good number of second string players for the team also. The present venue at Kochi where one-day internationals have been held has been cleared for the matches for the next season, and hopefully for the 2012 season the matches would be held in the new stadium that is to come up at Kochi at a cost of Rs.300 crore,” said Mathew.

Tharoor expressed confidence that political parties would all welcome the team.