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2G
case: Swamy's
plea against Chidambaram dismissed
NEW DELHI: A court
in Delhi hearing the 2G Spectrum case has dismissed Janata Party
president Subramanian Swamy's petition to make Home Minister P.
Chidambaram a co-accused in the case. Swamy had moved the court,
alleging the minister was as culpable as former Telecom Minister A.
Raja in determining the prices of scarce spectrum and in allowing the
dilution of shares. Special judge O. P. Saini dimissed his petition in
a two-line order.
The Supreme Court
on Thursday had refused to direct the CBI to investigate the alleged
role of Chidambaram leaving it to the Special Court trying the 2G
case. A Bench of justices
G. S. Singhvi and A. K. Ganguly, which asked the lower court not to
get influenced by its decision, had also refused to direct CBI to
"investigate Chidambaram".
The Special Judge,
on January 21, had reserved the order for February 4 on the plea of
Swamy.
Meanwhile, Swamy
said he would approach the Delhi High Court and place more evidence. — Agencies
IPL 5 auction: Chennai buy Jadeja for $2m
BANGALORE: Ravindra Jadeja today expectedly turned
out to be the biggest draw for the franchises with Chennai Super Kings
buying the young Indian all-rounder for a whopping $2 million (approx.
Rs 9.72 crore) in the players' auction for the fifth edition of the
Indian Premier League here.
The 23-year-old, whose base price was $1,00,000,
went to Chennai after the tiebreaker clause was invoked when two teams
— CSK and Deccan Chargers — bid the maximum ($2 million) for the
Saurashtra player.
Both the franchises were asked to bid a secret
amount in the tiebreaker and it was Chennai which managed to outbid
Deccan in this.
But the cricketer himself will get paid $9,50,000
as per the contract he had signed with the now-disbanded Kochi Tuskers
Kerala last year and even the secret amount that was bid on him by
Chennai would go into the BCCI coffers.
Former Sri Lankan captain Mahela Jayawardene,
incidentally the KTK captain last season, was also a big draw going to
Delhi Daredevils for $1.4 million (approx Rs 6.8 crore).
Jayawardene will, however, get $1.5 million as per
his contract last year.
Among other big gainers at the auction, New Zealand
wicketkeeper-batsman Brendon McCullum was bought for $9,00,000 by
Kolkata Knight Riders. McCullum's base price was $4,00,000.
Indian stumper Parthiv Patel went for $6,50,000 to
Deccan Chargers, which was quite high from his base price of $2,00,000.
Veteran Indian batsman VVS Laxman, who was a big
disappointment during the recent Test series against Australia, went
unsold in the auction along with England's James Anderson, Ian Bell,
Ravi Bopara and Matt Prior, West Indies' Ramnaresh Sarwan, Adrian Barath
and Darren Bravo and South Africa's Mark Boucher. MORE PTI
Sri Lankan spin legend Muttiah Muralitharan, who
was with Chennai Super Kings and Kochi in the previous editions, was
bought by Royal Challengers Bangalore for $2,20,000 (approx. Rs 1.06
crore).
South Africa's veteran opening batsman Herschelle
Gibbs, who was released by Deccan Chargers, fetched $50,000 (approx. Rs
24 lakh) from Mumbai Indians, while Australian batsman Brad Hodge was
taken by Rajasthan Royals for $475,000 (approx Rs 2.3 crore).
Australian pacer Mitchell Johnson went to Mumbai
Indians at his base price of $3,00,000 (approx Rs 1.4 crore). West
Indies Andre Russell fetched $4,50,000 from the Delhi Daredevils, a
substantial hike from his base price of $50,000.
Sri Lankan wicketkeeper-batsman Dinesh Chandimal
was turned out to be a bargain buy for Rajasthan Royals, who bought him
at his base price of $50,000.
Jadeja was supposed to be the highlight of the
auction today and so it turned out to be with almost all franchise
placing their bids on the all-rounder.
Ironically, just two years ago, Jadeja was banned
for a year after trying to negotiate a deal with Mumbai Indians while
still on contract with Rajasthan Royals.
Dubbed the "rockstar" by Australian spin
legend and Rajasthan captain-cum-coach Shane Warne, Jadeja was bought by
Kochi for $9,50,000, and he did well by making 283 runs at a strike rate
of 124.12, and taking eight wickets at an economy rate of 7.26. — PTI
Sahara
withdraws sponsorship, pulls out of IPL too
NEW DELHI/BANGALORE: Indian cricket was today hit
by a major sponsorship crisis after Sahara India ended its 11-year-old
financial ties with the BCCI and also pulled out of the IPL by
withdrawing from Pune Warriors' ownership just hours before the players
auction for the fifth edition.
Unfazed by the surprise development, the IPL
authorities went ahead with the auction, saying that no written
communication had come from Sahara about their pullout.
Sahara's decision to severe all ties with the BCCI
came as a surprise particularly at a time when the Board has been
struggling to find long-term sponsors and the team's miserable show in
the tour of Australia and England.
The company, which has divested into various
sectors, gave detailed reasons for its "emotional decision" to
pull out from BCCI as well as the IPL and accused the Board of not
giving due consideration to its genuine grievances.
Sahara had signed a renewed agreement with the BCCI
on July 1, 2010 till December 31, 2013 and was paying Rs 3.34 crore per
Test match, one-day international and Twenty20 International under the
new terms.
"...after an 11-year journey as sponsors, we
can say with surety that cricket has become very rich. Many rich people
are there to support cricket with a strong will to do so. So, with
absolute peace of mind we can exit from cricket under BCCI and are
exiting with a heavy heart," Sahara said in a statement.
"It was an emotional decision for us to start
this sponsorship but our emotions were never appreciated and many
genuine situations were not given due consideration at all," the
statement read.
Sahara, which entered the cash-rich IPL bandwagon
last year along with the now-disbanded Kochi Tuskers Kerala, bought Pune
Warriors for 1702 crore last year. The company complained that several
requests put forth by it with regards to players and the number of
matches were not accepted by the BCCI.
The BCCI, on its part, appeared to be nonchalant
about Sahara's decision and said it would react only when it gets
written communication. — PTI
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