The Rendezvous consortium that has 25% of the sweat equity of the Kochi IPL team and includes Sunanda Pushkar, friend of Minister of State for External Affairs Shashi Tharoor, is the prime mover of the project, according to the joint venture agreement of the shareholders, says an Indian Express report.
Pushkar, along with the Gaikwads, the promoters of Rendezvous Sports World Pvt Ltd, brought the investors together, the report says.
The second page of the 31-page agreement signed for setting up the “unincorporated integrated joint venture agreement” for participating in IPL bidding for the two new teams, clearly states: “Investor 1 has approached Investors 2 to 7 (both inclusive) for assisting it in forming a consortium in the form of an unincorporated integrated joint venture for enabling the Parties to qualify as bidders...”
Investor 1, in the contract, has been identified as Rendezvous Sports World, whereas investors 2 to 7 include Rendezvous, Anchor Earth, Parinee Developers and Properties, Filmwaves Combines, Anand Shyam Estates and Developers and Vivek Venugopal.
Rendezvous Sports, the first investor, was given 25% sweat equity in the consortium, of which 19% is held by Pushkar. This equity had been assigned to them in return of their efforts to put the team together and also to carry out other functions necessary to win the team and then, operate it thereafter.
The contract further says Investor 1 approached Investors 2-7 to assist them in satisfying the financial and other criteria as set forth in the tender floated by IPL.
It also says that 25% of equity is given to Investor 1 for “consideration other than cash in relation to services to be rendered by Investor with regard to achievement of objectives and bringing the technical expertise related to cricket and sport management.”
When contacted, Satyajit Gaikwad, the new spokesperson of the Kochi franchise — related to Rendezvous's promoter Shailendra Gaikwad — said: “Shailendra was active in cricketing circles for a long time. When the opportunity to bid for a new IPL team came up, they all (including the Gaikwads and Pushkar) together.”
Meanwhile, Ashish Mehta, lawyer of Shashi Tharoor's friend Sunand Pushkar, - the lady in the eye of the storm - says his client is unnecessarily being made a scapegoat in the political issue.
Interviewed by Delhi Times, the lawyer said Sunanda never owned any spas and she is not a beautician, as mentioned in media reports.
“Maybe the media miscarried the first report, from ‘beauty' they made it ‘beautician.' Maybe they wanted to say that she's a beauty, and they ended up saying that she is a beautician”, says the lawyer.
Mehta pointed out that both Sunanda and Tharoor have not denied that they were friends. “Being friends is not a crime, the Indian constitution allows two people, two people of different genders, to be friends”.
On Sunanda's recent statement that she was feeling insecure and vulnerable and that she had expected that she would be protected better, Mehta said: “ Well, obviously, she is a lady and she had never expected all this. She also alleges that she's been receiving threats and she's returned back to Dubai because she doesn't feel safe in Delhi, in India. I expect everyone's interested in knowing what the true facts are.
“It's been alleged by the media that she is a socialite, that she owns spas in Dubai and that she is a beautician, which is absolutely distorted, incomplete and incorrect information. She is not a socialite, she doesn't own any spas and she's not a beautician.
