MUMBAI: The Hockey India League is going strength to strength, Close on the heels of Sahara Group acquiring Lucknow franchise, the Hockey India League has roped in another major business house. Jaypee Group (Jaiprakash Associates) has taken the Punjab franchise of the fledgling league that will debut in January 2013.

The high-profile Hockey India League, which has secured a window on the International Hockey Federation (FIH) calendar, will see six teams play on a home-and-away basis. The 33-match series, which will run from 5 January to 13 February, will be broadcast on ESPN Star Sports.

This is Jaypee?s second big investment in sports apart from the Jaypee Sports City which hosted the Indian Grand Prix. The company has appointed Sachin Tendulkar as brand ambassador for its flagship cement brand Jaypee Cement.

Hockey India Secretary-General and HIL Chairman Dr. Narinder Batra said, "When we have such groups as Sahara India and JAL as the first two HIL franchises, we not only feel encouraged that Indian hockey will get a fillip but also believe players from around the world will love competing in the tournament."

JAL executive chairman Manoj Gaur said he is thrilled that JAL is a HIL franchise. "By participating in HIL, the Jaypee Group has taken a definite step forward on way to help Indian hockey regain glory. The Punjab franchise that we have taken will get the Group?s full backing and we will be able to raise a world class team.

"We will arrange best of coaching and other facilities for our players so that they could be trained to not only lift the HIL Trophy but also contribute in India winning major international tournaments."

He further added, "Our participation in HIL is in a way also redemption of our Founder Chairman Shri Jaiprakash Gaur?s dream of grooming a battalion of young hockey players who will, in turn, help India dominate international hockey for a long time to come."

The six franchises will be selected from a pool of 12 cities that have infrastructure and facilities to host a match.

Earlier, Sahara Group had announced that it is taking franchise rights of Lucknow team. Apart from being the sponsor of Indian hockey team, Sahara has also been a global partner of the International Hockey Federation.

MUMBAI: Sahara Group-owned IPL team Pune Warriors India Thursday announced former Indian captain Sourav Ganguly as the captain of the team for season 5 of the IPL to be played from 4 April to 27 May.

The franchise also announced that Pune Warriors India team will don new turquoise blue and silver coloru jerseys. Turquoise blue colour stands for zeal, confidence and victory, the very attributes and motto of a Warrior, PWI said.

Sahara Group chairman Subrata Roy said, ?We are extremely proud that the legendary all-rounder and one of the most successful captain of the Indian Cricket Team, Sourav Ganguly, is the Captain and Mentor of Pune Warriors India in this season of IPL. I am sure that his experience, expertise and deep understanding of the nuances of the game will definitely infuse an exemplary spirit of passion and commitment amongst the members of the team.?

The Pune Warriors India?s bowling coach is Allan Donald while Praveen Amre is the batting coach. Paddy Upton is the mental conditioning and high performance coach of the team.

MUMBAI: Sahara Group?s Subroto Roy today said that he is open to negotiations with the BCCI as far as his IPL team Pune Warriors is concerned, but made it clear that the group is no longer keen in sponsoring the Indian cricket team.

Roy said that he will continue supporting Pune Warriors because he doesn?t want his players to suffer and miss the fifth edition of the IPL.

Roy added that cricket is immensely popular in India and that his company?s pullout won?t affect the BCCI?s coffers since there are several corporate majors willing to sponsor the cricket team.

"Ten years back sponsorship was difficult in cricket. But now cricket is very rich and there are many people who are interested to be sponsor. So I don?t think there is any problem. But I have promised them I am not going to walk out till they get a sponsor," said Roy.

MUMBAI: Blow hot, blow cold. That could be the approach of Sahara India as it announced that it would walk out of the Indian Premier League (IPL) and withdraw from all sponsorships under India?s cricket board, while founder-promoter Subroto Roy indicated later in the day that a reconciliation could be possible if the BCCI adopted a flexible approach.

"We are not rigid," was the quick response from Roy during a press conference when asked whether there is ground for reconciliation. Roy also said that he will think "twice" about his decision if there is player?s interest at stake.

Will the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) and the Sahara Group reconcile? Well, that could or could not be a possibility but if the noises emanating from both sides is any indication, then a patch-up is not that difficult a task. After all, there is a lot at stake for both parties.

Talking to Indiantelevision.com, IPL chairman Rajeev Shukla said that the BCCI is open to reconciliation with the Sahara Group, which had bought the IPL Pune franchise for a whopping $370 million and sponsored the Indian team at a fee of Rs 33 million per Test match, ODI and T20.

The BCCI, of which IPL is a sub-committee, has not received any official notice from the Sahara Group on termination of contract.

"Whatever we have heard is through the media. We haven?t received any notice from them," said Shukla.

"They have been our partners for a long time, we can sort out the differences with them (Sahara)," he added, while stressing that the IPL cannot change rules for just one franchise.

He also found comparison between Champions League and IPL unfair since the two are different tournaments altogether. IPL is a qualifying tournament for CL T20, which involves top clubs from six cricket playing nations.

Sahara had in a media statement stated that the BCCI had bended rules during last year?s CL T20 by allowing Mumbai Indians to replace their injured Indian player with a foreigner which meant that the team fielded five foreign players instead of the rules permitting only four to be part of the final eleven.

The company had requested the BCCI to allow it to carry the prize purse of Yuvraj Singh, who has been ruled out of IPL season 5 due to lung tumour, into the players auction which the BCCI flatly refused thereby triggering a strong reaction from the Lucknow headquartered group.

The IPL chairman said that the BCCI would have given the same concession to any other IPL team who had qualified for Champions League if they had been confronted with the same situation.

"That is not just Mumbai Indians. We would allow other franchises in Champions League to avail that facility, but IPL is a different case. They (Sahara) should not compare IPL with Champions League," Shukla affirmed.

Shukla also hinted that the IPL might go back to the original format if things don?t work with Sahara. "The IPL was originally an eight team event and was quite successful," Shukla revealed.

Earlier in the afternoon, Roy indicated that Sahara would be accommodative if the BCCI changed its inflexible approach. He was responding to a question at a press conference held in Mumbai.

Roy then went on to recount instances wherein the company went out of its way to accommodate BCCI?s requests which the latter never reciprocated.

Sahara had issued a statement in the morning stating that it was unhappy with the BCCI due to the fact that they haven?t taken into consideration any of its suggestion like having an open player auction, which according to Roy would have given all the teams an even playing field and strengthened the IPL.

He was also annoyed with the fact that they had to pay the same franchise fee despite the BCCI cutting down on the number of matches to 74 instead of the 94 matches that was promised during franchise auctions.

Roy believes the franchise was paying 25 per cent more franchise fee due to the cutting down of total matches. The company had also requested the BCCI to take the matter to an arbitrator and sort it out but the BCCI refused.

He also clarified that the company?s decision to back out of Team India?s sponsorship had nothing to do with team India?s performance, but more with the fact that it did not want to deal with a body with which it had fallen out.

Meanwhile, the BCCI in a statement today made it clear that rules would not be bent for any IPL franchise. It would, however, still reach out to its long-term partner "as soon as practicable to clarify its intentions".

"We understand that Sahara Adventure Sports Limited has issued a statement in which it indicates an intention to withdraw from its involvement in Indian cricket, including as regards the Indian Premier League. We intend to contact Sahara Adventure Sports Limited as soon as practicable to clarify its intentions," BCCI Secretary Sanjay Jagdale said in a statement.

"If we understand Sahara Adventure Sports Limited?s statement, it intends not to participate in the 2012 IPL Auction or in the 2012 IPL Season," the statement added.

"During the last few days Sahara Adventure Sports Limited has requested that IPL vary its Player Regulations by allowing it to increase its Auction Purse from $1.6 million to $3.4 million in light of Yuvraj Singh?s unfortunate illness. Whilst all within IPL and BCCI have a huge amount of sympathy for Yuvraj Singh and wish him all the best for a speedy recovery, it is unable to vary the Player Regulations," the BCCI insisted.

MUMBAI: In a development that will surely have deep implications, Sahara Group has announced its withdrawal from all cricketing activities including Team Indian sponsorship and IPL franchise Pune Warriors India.

The announcement was made before the commencement of the IPL player?s auction in which the Pune Warriors India did not participate.

Sahara has given several reasons for its decision to opt out of cricket but the main trigger is believed to be the BCCI?s decision to disallow the franchise to use the price of Yuvraj Singh, who has been ruled out of IPL season 5.0, in today?s auction purse.

It also pointed out that under similar circumstances, the BCCI promoted Champions League T20 rules were bended for Mumbai Indians when they were allowed to bring in replacements for their injured players. Sahara feels that this peculiar situation of Singh is silent in the rule book because it probably talks only about players who are temporarily injured.

"Incidentally, once during the Champion?s League tournament, one of the Indian IPL teams had a lot of injured players so they were rightly, out of natural justice, allowed to break the rules and take one extra foreign player. We appreciated this natural justice," Sahara said in statement.

Sahara also noted that its first entry into IPL was thwarted in 2008 when it was disqualified, owing to a small technicality on the whims and fancies of BCCI.

It further pointed out that when the company had bought the Pune franchise for $370 million, it was promised that there would be 94 matches in the IPL which was later reduced to 74 matches. Despite reducing the number of matches, the BCCI did not reduce franchise fee.

"We are still pursuing continuously with the BCCI to refund the extra bid money proportionately. It has been denied on the basis of strict rules," it added.

Sahara was also unhappy with the fact that BCCI did not go for an open auction which did not give the two new franchises - Pune and Kochi - a level playing field.

"In the interest of the tournament, we repeatedly tried our best to pursue the BCCI for open auction of all players so that we achieve level playing field and all teams are equally balanced from the quality players? point of view. Again, as per BCCI?s strict rules it was denied and again, we were deprived of natural justice. 12 of the best players were retained by the existing teams then," the statement averred.

On the sponsorship front, it says that will continue for a few months as the BCCI will take time to find another sponsor.

Sahara?s fresh four-year sponsorship contract for the national team, pegged at $115 million, runs through to December 2013.

"We really feel such one-sided emotional relationship cannot be dragged any further. We are withdrawing from all cricket under BCCI/ However, we don?t want to give any problem to the BCCI and we also feel that the players should not suffer.

"BCCI will definitely take 2-4 months to get a new sponsor and we will continue paying the sponsorship money till then. All other IPL team players, coaches and other such associates will definitely get their due this year, in case they do not get a chance to play," the statement said.

Meanwhile, former IPL chairman Lalit Modi has blamed BCCI president N Srinivasan?s arrogant style of functioning for the current mess in IPL Sahara Group?s pulling out of the league.

"Sahara termination - shows how unhappy the major sponsor and franchise owner is with the way BCCI deals with its partners. This is really a sad day. Sahara has been sports biggest supporter and pillar," Modi wrote on his twitter page.

"It?s a black day for Indian Cricket. All due to One ego maniac. Wonder how we allow that to continue. It will ruin cricket completely," read another tweet.

"All I can say is that whenever sports was in trouble - we could always count on Sahara being there. They were one solid company one could always bank on coming thru," he added.

"When another Team owner is a state association president, BCCI president and just showed that he controls ICC thru his clout. And does things only in favour of himself. This was bound to happen."

Laying the blame of shunning BCCI sponsors and partners at Srinivasan?s door, Modi said the current president had no moral authority to continue.

"BCCI President needs to go. He has no concept of taking people along. The Fans, Players, Sponsors, Franchisee owners, are the people who make us what we are. And they need to be listened too. Not shunned away," he added.

"BCCI has made all posts redundant in BCCI and want to do the same in ICC. They want only one door to be opened for cricket. That door has a Plate on it - N Srinivasan. Owner CSK, president TNCA, President BCCI, controller ICC," he added.

MUMBAI: After cricket and hockey, Sahara Group chairman Subroto Roy is showing new interest in a sport that is evolving in India: Formula One motor racing.

Sahara, which owns the Pune franchise of the Indian Premier League (IPL) and sponsors the Indian cricket team, has bought 42.5 per cent stake in Vijay Mallya-owned Force India, the country?s first F1 team, for $100 million.

The team will be renamed Sahara Force India.

Mallya?s UB group will also own an equal stake in the motor racing team while the remaining 15 per cent will be with the Mol family.

In 2007, Mallya and Dutch entrepreneur Michiel Mol had acquired for around 90 million Euros the Spyker Formula One team, which was suffering losses at that time. The team was later rechristened Force India.

In a joint press conference today, India.

In a joint press conference today, Mallya and Sahara said both of them are very happy about the deal and that Mallya will remain the Team Principal.

On 30 October, India will for the first time host Grand Prix at the 120,000-capacity Buddh International Circuit in Greater Noida, UP.

Mallya, who runs a profitable liquor outfit, needs to find cash to rescue his ailing Kingfisher Airlines business. He also owns the Bangalore franchise of the IPL.

The Sahara group had acquired the Pune franchise of the cash-rich IPL last year for $370 million. It is also the main sponsor of the national cricket team.

Force India is ranked sixth in the Formula One constructor?s standings with 48 points in the current season. The current drivers of the team are German Adrian Sutil and Britain?s Paul Di Resta.