New Delhi, April 28: With doubts raised about who its owners were, IPL franchise Rajasthan Royals said its promoters put in place a corporate structure only after they won the Jaipur team in 2008.
The admission comes within days of the suspension of IPL commissioner Lalit Modi, who was charged with hiding his relationship with the owners of the Rajasthan Royals including his brother-in-law Suresh Chellaram, among other things.
There were also reports that Preity Zinta, a co-owner of Kings XI Punjab, did not have a single share in the entity at the time of winning the bid and signing the contract.
“The corporate structure was established in accordance with the details provided in the bid submission shortly after the bid. It was not established prior to the bid, as we obviously did not know if the bid would be successful,” Rajasthan Royals said in a statement.
Raising questions over the ownership of the team yesterday, BCCI President Shashank Manohar said despite Modi’s statement that the entire world knew who the shareholders of Rajasthan Royals were “but the fact is that not even the Governing Council (of IPL) members know about Rajasthan Royals”.
He had also said he did not find the names of Shilpa Shetty and Raj Kundra in the register of shareholders despite their claims to be stakeholders in the Jaipur-based team.
Like the Rajasthan Royals, Manohar had also raised similar questions over Preity Zinta’s stake in the Kings XI Punjab.
Rajasthan Royals, however, claimed the consortium neither flouted any norms nor hid any information from the BCCI about its shareholding pattern.
——-PTI