The Deccan Chargers crash and burn story

(Editor’s note: The original article was published on 13 September before the BCCI had terminated its contract with the IPL team. It is being republished now following the termination of the contract)

When Potluru Vara Prasad of PVP Ventures told his film producer friend in Hyderabad last week that he was planning to bid for Deccan Chargers, the latter was surprised. For Prasad had never shown an inclination for cricket in the past. And 22 yards and the world of cheerleaders, he reckoned, is a different ballgame from the world of real estate, power, education and entertainment that the 40-something Prasad has dabbled in in the past.

But he had not factored in Prasad’s flair and reputation of being a hi-flier businessman. In the last five years, PVP Ventures has financed several big budget Tamil films. Prasad is the producer of Kamal Haasan’s Viswaroopam and PVP Cinemas is also producing Arya’s Irandam Ulagam and Bala’s Eriyum Thanal. He had recently bought the rights to the Tamil version Naan Ee, of Telugu superhit film Eega, and his next co-production Avunu in Telugu is releasing next week.

But Prasad’s attempt to hit a DLF maximum IPL-style did not go according to script. Deccan Chronicle did not like PVP Ventures’ bid price of Rs 900 crore. Not surprising since it would do little to meet Deccan Chronicle’s debt of over Rs 3,500 crore.

A statement from the BCCI stated,“The bid that was received by Deccan Chronicle Holdings Limited met the BCCI’s eligibility and suitability criteria. The bid was then reviewed by Deccan Chronicle Holdings Limited who, in its discretion and with no role being played by BCCI, rejected the bid on the basis of the payment terms offered by the bidder.”

This pretty much means DC remains unsold, and BCCI will now have to take a call on what to do with the IPL franchise in its meeting on 15 September.

Deccan Chargers has been the story of a bull that charged just once in five years. In IPL season 2 in South Africa, when it won the trophy. Barring that triumph, DC has been more a case of being DisCharged all the time. The team bought big names like Adam Gilchrist, Rohit Sharma, Andrew Symonds, Shahid Afridi, Herchelle Gibbs, Kumara Sangakkara and Dale Steyn, but they remained just that. Big names, who could not come together to make a cohesive winning combination.

DC chose to sideline local hero VVS Laxman from season one itself. In fact, Laxman’s humiliation was complete when the wristy batsman, ignored by DC, was bought by Kochi Tuskers in season 4 and went unsold the following year. On a day when DC went unsold, one cannot help but feel there is something called Divine Providence.

Deccan Chronicle Holdings’ financial woes are by now well documented. But the fact remains that they were clean bowled in the cricketing arena as well. A former cricketer who was involved with Deccan Chargers blames it on its management’s inability to handle the cricketing aspects. There was apparently little strategy in how players were to be bought or how matches were to be won. He points out how DC went to more than one IPL technical committee meetings without having a cricketer in its midst.

The newspaper group looked at the IPL acquisition as an image-building exercise and paid little attention to intelligent buys. Its team in the first three seasons was too batting oriented and very weak in bowling, making it incapable of defending even high totals. Its fielding and catching was the butt of jokes the last season, with most fielders having utterly butterly fingers. Even when DC bought quality cricketers, it only kept losing them. Rohit Sharma moved to Mumbai Indians and Kevin Pieterson to Delhi Daredevils. Even Hyderabad’s own Pragyan Ojha chose to move west to Harbhajan Singh-territory Mumbai. It showed a serious lack of effort by the team management to retain talent.

Despite a brand like Deccan Chronicle, which is quintessentially Hyderabadi, the newspaper group could never get the city to own its IPL team, unlike say a Chennai, Mumbai or a Kolkata. It was always seen as this cricket team that belonged to a newspaper group. Unlike Shahrukh Khan or a Nita Ambani who publicly display a hunger for success, bordering on desperation, DC never charged. It never invested in creating hype around its team, creating fan clubs or even selling merchandise.

Those who understand the business of IPL also point out that it is not a money-making investment. And for Deccan Chronicle, that bought the IPL franchise for Rs 428 crore in 2008, to expect anything more than 900 crores for its below average property is being greedy. Moreover, this brand of cricket is not seen as 100 per cent sincere or above board, like other forms of cricket, and that casts a shadow of doubt in the minds of prospective buyers.

DC has not paid its players their fee for the last season and there is every possibility that the team could be disbanded. BCCI could then encash the bank guarantee and pay the players their fees. A former Hyderabad player says it will be for the good of Hyderabad cricket if it bids goodbye to its IPL team and the players start focussing on Ranji Trophy.

It is quite evident that as far as IPL in Hyderabad is concerned, the bears have taken over from the bull.