Videocon Industries has turned out to be the front-runner to buy Deccan Chargers, the IPL team from Hyderabad. The franchisee is owned by the Deccan Chronicles Holdings Ltd (DCHL) and has been put into sale following the losses accrued by the group in their flagship print business.

 

"Yes, we are interested and will place our bids for buying out Deccan Chargers," Videocon Group chairman Venugopal Dhoot was quoted as saying in Friday's The Times of India. "It's a good fit for our brand and will be used to connect to our consumers." 

 

Videocon had previously bid for the Pune franchise during the 2010 auctions but had lost out to the Sahara Group. In one of the most high profile buying, Sahara had shelled out $370 million, the highest amount paid in the history of the IPL to buy a franchise. 

 

Deccan Chargers, which boasts of some impressive players like Kumar Sangakkara and Cameron White is valued at around $240 million, but is estimated to be sold at a much lower price. 

 

DCHL has run into financial difficulties and has failed to clear its dues to many of its players for the 2012 season. Deccan Chargers was brought by the DCHL group in the 2008 auctions at $107 million making it the most expensive franchise after Mumbai and Bangalore. 

 

The Chargers are not the first franchise to suffer from financial difficulties. The Indian cricket board last year axed Kochi Tuskers for failing to make its annual payment after just one year in the league, reducing the number of teams from ten to nine in 2012. 

 

A separate attempt to eject the Rajasthan Royals and Kings XI Punjab in 2010 over murky ownership disputes was blocked after a court battle. 

 

DCHL had advertised the sale of their cricket team across major newspapers and had called for bidders to submit their tenders. "The winning bidder will acquire... the right to own and operate the IPL team currently known as the Deccan Chargers which is and will continue to be based in Hyderabad," the advertisement said. It added that bidders would "need to fulfill the eligibility criteria of BCCI". 

 

If they win the bid, the Videocon group wants to move the franchise out of Hyderabad to Ahmedabad. Under the conditions laid out by the BCCI, any new buyer is not supposed to move the franchise out of the based city.