Essel Group, the Indian conglomerate behind a "proposed challenge to cricket's establishment," has provided an insight into its intentions, confirming it plans "to make a foray into the game by setting up a rival Twenty20 league," according to Chris Barrett of the SYDNEY MORNING HERALD. Essel, owned by billionaire media magnate Subhash Chandra, "previously ran the failed Indian Cricket League." After consistently having its broadcast wing Zee TV and its subsidiary Ten Sports "frozen out of lucrative rights to televise cricket in India," Essel's "ambitious plans" have progressed from setting up a rebel T20 league to a "parallel world governing body." Discussions have included offering leading players, including Australia's Michael Clarke and David Warner, as much as A$50M ($39.5M) in multi-year contracts "in an effort to lure them away from their national bodies." Essel Head of Finance & Strategy Himanshu Mody said that the initial plan is to "create an inter-city T20 league in India." Mody: "The format for what we are building will be the T20 format, home and away games, across 10-12 cities. We are not looking at a short time frame. It could be a year away or even a little more. We know the timing is right but we are equally aware of the pitfalls where BCCI can hit us and are much wiser today" (SMH, 5/7). FOX SPORTS reported the chief architect of the Indian Premier League was Lalit Modi, whose chief concern was the "logistic challenge of hiring grounds to play at," but Mody did not believe this would "be an issue." Mody: "Besides the right time ... the two main ingredients are players and grounds. ... On the grounds front, during ICL, we fell short with just four grounds in four cities. Also, we learned we needed eight to 10 teams. So, this time round, we will have to ensure we have more grounds" (FOX SPORTS, 5/7). The PTI reported Chandra raised the possibility of players "being given bank guarantees as
a way to convince them to join his venture given Essel's record of not paying ICL wages." Between 40 and 50 players from the defunct ICL
"remain out of pocket" to the tune of $2M despite Essel recently
settling with 12 of the players for a figure of $280,000 in a Mumbai
court (PTI, 5/7).
