Sharad Pawar promised me the extra money: Sunil Gavaskar
The war of words between former cricketer and commentator Sunil Gavaskar and the Board of Control for Cricket in http://www.senore.com/Cricket/India-c750 (BCCI) seems to be showing no signs of abating. After being accused of demanding for
Rs.20 crores ($4.5 million) by the BCCI secretary N Srinivasan, Gavaskar has come out in his defence and said that he was promised that sum by then-BCCI chief, Sharad Pawar. Pawar is the current International Cricket Council chief.
Gavaskar said that since it was Pawar who had promised him the sum, he took his word for it and did not have it as a part of the contract.
Gavaskar released a statement that said that he will look to have Pawar involving himself in the matter. He said, "I am now waiting for Mr Sharad Pawar, the then President of BCCI, to arrange a meeting
with the current President of BCCI to help untangle and resolve this 'demanding' matter, since it was he who made the offer for the extra payment over and above the original amount given to the former players on the Governing Council and on whose word I agreed
to come on board the Governing Council."
The BCCI-Gavaskar battle had begun when it was revealed that Gavaskar had allegedly had a stake in the Indian Premier League franchise of Kochi, which he denied. Annoyed at the reports doing rounds, Gavaskar
tried to take on the BCCI by revealing that he hadn’t been paid by the IPL for three years for his being part of the IPL Governing Council. The BCCI retaliated by saying that all the payments till the last quarter had been made.
Later, the BCCI came out with a statement that said that Gavaskar had demanded them Rs.20 crores instead of the Rs.1 crore that had been promised to Gavaskar as a part of the contract to be in the IPL governing
council. Now, Gavaskar has responded to the allegations by saying that he was offered the sum by Pawar.
Former IPL chief Lalit Modi also backed Gavaskar by saying that he had always found Gavaskar to be a forthright man. He added, “All I can tell you is that in all my dealings with Sunny, I've never known him
to be a liar or anything. Sunny has been forthright. I'm sure they'll sort it out.”
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