In the eventuality of Sahara discontinuing the sponsorship of the Indian cricket team, BCCI may find it difficult to rope in a new patron, given the mad rush for the IPL

Having bid a staggering Rs1,700 crore (plus) for buying a team in the Indian Premier League (IPL), Sahara will review its sponsorship to the Indian cricket team, group chief Subroto Roy has said, reports PTI.

Sahara had won the sponsorship for the Indian cricket team for Rs400 crore for a four-year period ending December 2009, and had agreed to continue for six more months as the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) could not find any sponsors.

In the eventuality of Sahara discontinuing the sponsorship, BCCI may find it difficult to rope in a new patron given the mad rush for the IPL.

"No, it will not. Only thing we will see is our continuation of sponsorship to the Indian cricket team. We will sit on that and we will discuss on that. But on all other sports, nothing will be affected," Mr Roy told PTI on the impact of the group's aggressive bidding to acquire the Pune team of the IPL.

Asserting that the group, which is also sponsoring the hockey team, would seriously consider (limiting) exposure to the BCCI and women's cricket, he said, "We will take a conscious decision about it."

On financing the 10-year-bid, he said that there were various options and many Indian companies and British clubs have evinced interest in becoming Sahara’s partners, adding that going public through an initial public offer in a year or two was also a possibility.

"We are paying every year in advance to acquire a property. So if you are paying advance, it is not a profit or loss account factor. So we can go even for an initial public offering (IPO) in a year or two years," Mr Roy said.

"There are approaches from not only Indian companies, but within 24 hours we got proposals from some very big club in the UK. They want to join hands with us. There are many kinds of opportunities," he said.

Mr Roy, however, made it clear that the Sahara group would keep the majority stake and said that inclusion of a partner would depend on two factors—really good people behind the organisation and a positive and exciting financial proposal.

He said that the Pune team would not be a loss-making proposition and it would generate operating profits from year one.