Sourav Ganguly is not involved with Pune franchise of IPL: Sanjiv Goenka
Sanjiv Goenka, owner of the recently auctioned Pune based Indian Premier League (IPL) franchise and co-owner of Indian Super League (ISL) club Atletico de Kolkata, has brushed aside allegations of 'conflict of interest' for Sourav Ganguly on Wednesday.
Sourav Ganguly and business tycoon Sanjiv Goenka are part of the consortium named Kolkata Games and Sports Pvt. Ltd. which owns defending champions of ISL, Atletico de Kolkata – which also features Atletico Madrid, Utsav Parekh and Harshavardhan Neotia.
RP-Sanjiv Goenka Group, headed by Sanjiv Goenka, bought ownership of the IPL's Pune based franchise for Rs. -16 crore in the auction held by BCCI in Delhi on Tuesday. However, a section of the media raised questions about the tenability of Sourav Ganguly's role in the IPL governing council, considering the business relationship he shares with Goenka through Atletico de Kolkata.
Sanjiv Goenka has however dismissed these claims by stating that the former Indian cricket captain is not attached with the Pune franchise in any manner.
“Sourav is not involved with us, which is sure. The thing is entirely mine. I own it 100 percent. It is only me and my group of companies,” Goenka was quoted as saying by IANS.
Goenka also went on to point out that this is not his first foray in IPL, reminding everyone of his attempt to buy the Kolkata based franchise, before Bollywood star Shah Rukh Khan outbid him.
“If you recall, you will see that we had originally bid for the Kolkata franchise but then Shah Rukh’s bid was marginally higher than ours. We have been wanting to get into the IPL for a long time now. It looks like a good opportunity,” he added.
Sanjiv Goenka also disclosed that Ganguly did not show any interest about the IPL franchise when he presented the idea to him.
“You all are being hypothetical that I am going to bring in Sourav. We have not thought of it. There have been no talks or discussions with Sourav on this. I was speaking to him about cricket the other day and he was looking away. That was in a football game. I was asking him, ‘What do you think, how do you think the sponsors would respond, and how was the Pune crowd like?’ But he just did not respond.
“Saswat (Sanjiv Goenka's son) and I took the call and decided to go for the bid. We now have the team for two seasons and we are going to make the best out of it,” Goenka said.
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